Frank and Joan's news for 07 April 2007 in Northern Cyprus

Frank and Joan's Adventures in Northern Cyprus

Our adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....

Arrived back at Ercan only 15 minutes late on Friday evening. Met Joan at The Ravine bar for their cod and chips as by that time it was 8 p.m. and I was hungry. Why? Has anybody ever eaten on a CTA flight? We had just sat down when Del & Sandra, from LDs, turned up so they joined us, it's been along time since we all went out together as they are always so busy, so it was a nice change.

Saturday saw me up to get the papers and check up on what is new.

There is talk about Medview taking over the Amaranta project and complete the partly bult homes. Apparently Mr Safa, the owner of Medview has requested Gray Robb to prepare a balance of his accounts so that he can do a feasability study with a view to taking over. Lets hope that this scheme comes to some sort satisfactory solution. So many have lost their investments at this stage and government promises all seem to come t

o nothing. Maybe some of the high ranking people are too close to what went wrong to want things to come out in the open. One thing is sure, having seen some of the Medview properties the quality of work is higher than most on the island.

All of you with properties here who only rent them out beware. The government is promising to come down hard on the 10% tax rule. it would seem that a law was passed in 1982 and all rentals were subject to a monthly payment to the Inland Revenue. Inspectors are planning to look at advertisements, websites etc to establish who is receivibg icome and dodging the tax. They are threatening prosecution for tax dodgers.

A Greek Cypriot gambler in the Merit Casino was arrested for possessing 32,400 Euros in fake notes. He appeared in court on Thursday and asked if he could be allowed to go home for the Easter break......what a joker. He was remanded in custody.

Good news. Pegasus Airlines has plans to increase the number of schedule flights between Ercan and the UK. They started their flights last Wednesday, initially also on Thursdays and Sundays but will increase the frequency if the demand is there and plan flights to Manchester and Birmingham in 2008. Competition is great, lets see what happens to the prices now.

New legislation enforcing tight controls on estate agents has been approved by the TRNC parliament but there are pending court actions which could prevent this legisaltion being put in to practice. Senior lawyers here believe that the problems are caused by developers and inefficient land registry offices. Existing legislation is already in place to tackle the bad developers but has not been enacted on so what is the point of introducing more laws if they are not properly policed.