mmr_00029 > ΚΥΠΡΙΑΚΑ ΣΠΙΡΤΑ ΑΓΡΙΝΟ [Mouflon Cyprus matches], Cyprus, cardboard box containing 60 match sticks, 1x4x3cm, Cyprus Match Factory Ltd, Nicosia (registration date of the company 13/09/45), ca.1950.
“ 4. THE ONLY MATCH FACTORY
There was established in Cyprus a Match Factory by a local Company, just before the end of the war. It was the first and only Match Factory in Cyprus. But, instead of assisting this new industry, of which the Island was in great need, the Government made its existence impossible and about four years later, it had to close down. From the day of its opening, the Government installed an excise officer on its premises to collect the excise duty payable on its production of matches. Two notes which appear under the heading «Main Heads of Taxation, at page 37 of the Government Annual Colonial Report for 1954, are reproduced hereunder, as they speak for themselves:
(ii) Matches manufactured and sold in Cyprus: Excise
duty equal to the rate of Customs import duty payable for the time being on matches of British Commonwealth origin imported into the Colony. No excise duty was collected on matches during the year 1954, as the only factory in Cyprus did not operate».
<License Fees»: Annually
<Annually: License for the manufacture of matches: £100, playing cards £1, beer £25, intoxicating liquor £10.
From the above official notes, it is obvious that the Government, in spite of the fact that this was the first and only Match factory in Cyprus, fixed the highest annual fee of £100 for a license to operate, and that the excise duty was as high as that for imported matches from England, Australia and other British countries; but in addition they had to pay import duty on raw materials which the imported matches did not have to pay.
The Match Company asked the Government to remove the excise duty on their matches for the first 2 or 8 years, to enable them to have a good start, but the Government refused to do so; then they asked the Government to reduce the excise duty, but they refused them again; later, they asked the Government to restrict the importation of matches from abroad, but in vain. Consequently, it was compelled to close down. It did not pay British exploitation to encourage the local match factory to compete against English and Australian matches in the local market.”
Extract from A Cyprus Pocket Book Containing Indisputable All British Documentary Evidence of the Seventy-eight Years Colonial Exploitation of the People of Cyprus by and for the Enrichment of Their British Colonial Masters and British Achievements in Apathy, Negligence, and Incompetence in the Administration of Cyprus, Greek Youth of Cyprus, Cyprus, 1956, p.20-21
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