Your electricity and water bill, in euros

Two bills reach almost every home in Cyprus whatever its income: electricity every two months from the Electricity Authority (EAC), and water from the district organisation that now runs water and sewerage. This story takes both apart, using the rates in force in October 2026.

What the numbers say

Electricity. We take two households on the EAC's standard domestic tariff: one using 800 kWh in two months, close to the national average of about 813 kWh by our arithmetic on Eurostat's figures, and a smaller one using 600 kWh. The larger bill comes to €264.43:

• €143.12 for energy, at 17.89 cents per kWh;
• €64.12 of fuel adjustment, at 8.02 cents per kWh;
• €31.44 for the network, at 3.93 cents;
• €9.35 in fixed and small charges: meter reading, supply, and the public service obligation;
• €12.40 of VAT at 5%;
• €4.00 for the Renewables Fund, half a cent per kWh, charged outside VAT.

All in, that is 33 cents per kWh. The smaller household pays €200.67.

The fuel adjustment is the line that moves. Since bills read in May 2026 the EAC's tariff assumes fuel at €600 a tonne, a price that already covers part of the cost of the emission allowances it must buy; every month the adjustment adds the difference between that and what the EAC actually pays for fuel and allowances. On bills read in May 2026 it was 2.38 cents per kWh; by October 2026 it was 8.02, as the price of fuel and emission allowances rose. On 800 kWh that difference is about €47 a bill including VAT, by our arithmetic. The carbon bill explains the allowance part: 5.8 cents per kWh on average in 2025, when it sat wholly in the adjustment. For October 2026 bills, in the energy charge and the adjustment together, we estimate about 7 cents; The tax you never see explains the estimate.

VAT on household electricity is 5% for meter readings from 1 May 2026 to 31 March 2027, under the VAT law, for all households. The government's package of 30 September did not extend it, and put its cost at €49 million. If 19% returns, the 800 kWh bill rises by 13%, to €299.16, and the smaller one to €227.03.

Water. We assume a household using 100 cubic metres a year. In Nicosia, Limassol and Larnaca it pays its district organisation between €228 and €235, VAT included, once the sewerage fee charged per cubic metre is added. Your municipal bill takes a larger household, 120 cubic metres, and counts water alone, €183 to €207, with the per-cubic-metre fee under sewerage; the two stories add up the same charges in different places.

In Nicosia it is €174.30 for water and €55 of sewerage fee, in Limassol €163.80 and €64, in Larnaca €185.22 and €50. Famagusta still has nine old tariffs, one per former municipal area, from about €95 to €200 before VAT if billed quarterly, which the organisation does not state, and Paphos had not published its tariff. On top of this comes the yearly sewerage charge on the value of the property, which depends on the house, not on how much water you use; Your municipal bill covers it. What the state itself pays for water is in Water and the budget.

What it means for you

If you are on a low income, check whether you qualify for the EAC's special tariff (code 08). It covers 20 groups, among them people on public assistance or the guaranteed minimum income, large families on child benefit, single-parent families on the single-parent allowance, and people receiving the low-income pensioners' allowance; being a pensioner alone is not enough. The account holder must be a Cypriot, EU or EEA citizen living lawfully in the areas the government controls. Its rates would cut the 800 kWh bill by €37, to €227.39, before a further state subsidy, which the Cabinet renewed on 30 September for all of 2027 for 23,300 households, covering "100% of the increase". Neither announcement says from what price the increase is measured, so we cannot calculate what eligible households will actually pay.

If you heat with oil, the duty on heating oil falls from 7.4 to 2.1 cents a litre from 1 November 2026 to 30 April 2027.

What is coming. The fuel adjustment changes every month. In 2028 the EU starts charging for carbon on heating fuels and road fuel; Cyprus's national energy plan, written for a 2027 start, estimated that this would make heating oil about 16 cents a litre dearer at 2023 prices, and petrol and diesel 11.5% to 14.2% dearer, by 2030. In March 2026 the President announced a decision not to impose a carbon tax on fuel, promised in the EU recovery plan, saying it would have added 9 cents a litre; the EU milestone, amended in July 2026, still includes it.

What people argue

Should the state keep cutting VAT on electricity? The government counts the 5% rate among its cost-of-living measures for every household. The case against a cut for everyone is that it costs the state €49 million and saves most, in euros, for the households that use the most, while help such as the special tariff goes only to those who qualify; the Fiscal Council, in its interim report of 24 September, said any room created by surpluses should go to productive investment and targeted help rather than to permanent benefits for everyone. The Finance Minister has also asked the European Commission about VAT being charged on top of a price that already includes allowance costs and levies.

Who should pay for carbon? The EAC's bill already carries the cost of emission allowances. The President rejected a fuel carbon tax on cost-of-living grounds, citing the 9 cents a litre it would add. The case for it is that it would spread the cost gradually before the EU system arrives in 2028. The carbon bill has the history of the tax and what its delay has cost in EU money. The Commission had already suspended €46 million of recovery funds on 2 March 2026 because the tax and a landfill charge were not in force.

How we know

The electricity bills are our own arithmetic on the EAC's domestic tariff document in force from 1 May 2026, the fuel adjustment for two-monthly low-voltage bills of October 2026 (8.0151 cents per kWh, the value revised under the energy regulator's decision 148/2023), the public service obligation rate and the VAT law's Fifth Schedule. The Renewables Fund levy of half a cent per kWh is as reported in the press and close to the 0.48 cents Eurostat records for 2025. The special tariff's groups and rates are from the EAC. The package of 30 September, its cost and the subsidy are from the Ministry of Finance's announcement and the Finance Minister's statement of that day. The carbon tax decision is from the President's televised message of 26 March 2026, the suspended funds from the Commission's decision of 2 March 2026, and the Fiscal Council's view from its Interim Report 2026. The average use of 813 kWh is Eurostat's household electricity consumption for 2024 divided by its count of households. The water bills are our arithmetic on the household tariffs of the district organisations of Nicosia, Limassol and Larnaca read on 3 October 2026, with VAT at 5%, which the Nicosia organisation does not state on its page. The fuel-price estimates for 2030 are from the National Energy and Climate Plan of December 2024. A real bill also depends on when your meter is read.