MOTORISTS have until February 29 to renew their road tax, the Road Transport Department (RTD) announced yesterday.
Since July last year, renewal forms through the post have no longer been sent out, with the RTD stating that vehicle owners must take responsibility for renewal before police checks begin on March 1.
Renewals can be done online at
http://rtd.mcw.gov.cy, at co-operative and commercial banks, citizens advice bureaus and at the RTD itself.
According to RTD Director, Soteris Kolettas, the choice available, “will make life so much easier for the public and this is very important to us.”
He added that paying online is, “easy, quick and secure. Just use your Visa, Mastercard or American Express credit cards and you can renew in less than five minutes.”
Takis Fekkos is JCC’s General Manager and he explained that 75 per cent of renewals were performed online last year.
“This shows that we are helping to make people’s lives as convenient as possible.”
An online renewal system has been in place since February 2006 in a government effort to cut down on the long queues and paperwork for the annual or six-monthly tax.
The online system is available 24 hours a day. After entering the necessary information, you will be asked to enter your insurance details and then to type your credit card number upon which your road tax dues will be charged.
Vehicles that don’t have a valid MOT certificate cannot receive road tax renewals.
People have been urged not to wait until the last few days of the deadline to renew as this “will congest the system.”
Those who do not wish to renew their road tax have been advised to either issue the RTD with a certificate of destruction (which can be obtained from licensed scrap heaps) or submit a request for the vehicle to be taken out of circulation.
Over the previous five years, the government lost over £38 million due to vehicles not having up-to-date road tax.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008