(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) Efforts in Cyprus continue to reach consensus on key issues as it attempts to save its economy from bankruptcy, desperately bidding to rescue an EU bailout by a Monday deadline.
Facing an imminent threat of financial meltdown, Cyprus MPs are expected to debate a controversial one-off tax on large deposits to help the country qualify for the European lifeline.
he MPs voted in three bills late on Friday as protestors faced off with riot police outside parliament, approving measures aimed at raising $7.47 billion to qualify for $13 billion in rescue loans or face being denied European Central Bank emergency funds.
They passed a bill to restructure the country's troubled banking sector by 26 votes to two, with 25 abstentions. The restructuring plan, considered the biggest step to date, would separate good debts from bad in troubled banks, particularly second largest lender Popular Bank, or Laiki in Greek.
The measures agreed also included a national solidarity fund to be set up through the nationalization of public and private sector pensions, and financial restrictions to prevent a run on the island's troubled banks when they are finally due to open on Tuesday after a more than week-long break.
With the clock ticking down to the crunch Sunday meeting with Eurozone finance ministers, MPs will likely first be debating the tax of up to 15 percent on bank deposits of 100,000 euros ($129,000).
Leading Cypriot bankers have urged parliament to accept a levy on bank deposits, as originally proposed under the bailout, but with smaller depositors exempted.
The plan, overwhelmingly rejected on Tuesday, would have made small savers pay a 6.75% levy, while larger investors would have paid 9.9%.
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