Cyprus parliament extends road tax deadline after technical issues

The Cyprus House of Representatives unanimously approved urgent legislation on Thursday to extend the deadline for vehicle road tax renewals. The original deadline of March 11, 2026, was missed by many motorists due to technical failures on the Road Transport Department website, which experienced a surge of 96,277 renewals in the final three days. The new deadline for renewals without penalty is March 31, 2026. The legislation, tabled by MP Alekos Tryfonides, is retrospective, allowing the Transport Department to refund surcharges already paid by drivers who renewed after March 11. These surcharges consisted of a 10 euro fee plus 10 percent of the annual tax. By the original deadline, a total of 780,395 vehicle licences had been processed. The extension was necessary because the original deadline is legally binding and could not be altered by the Ministry of Transport alone. Officials confirmed that the website infrastructure could not manage the high volume of traffic leading up to the cutoff.