A military plane carrying one million euros has been sent to Cyprus by the Ministry of Defence as a 'contingency measure' for UK troops and their families.
There are 3,000 UK military personnel based the Mediterranean island and the MoD has taken the step of sending a million euros (£852,600) over to provide emergency loans in the event servicemen and women cannot get cash out when banks re-open on Thursday.
Cyprus has been in turmoil since a proposal to levy a one-off tax on savings to pay for an international bailout for its ailing economy was revealed.
Money run: The RAF has confirmed it is sending one million euros to Cyprus as an emergency loan contingency for troops based there.And the MoD has said it is prepared to send MORE cash to its troops if it's needed.
A statement said: 'An RAF flight left for Cyprus this afternoon with one million euros on board as a contingency measure to provide military personnel and their families with emergency loans in the event that cash machines and debit cards stop working completely.
'We will keep this under review and consider further shipments if required.
'The MoD is proactively approaching personnel to ask if they want their March, and future months' salaries paid into UK bank accounts, rather than Cypriot accounts.
'We're determined to do everything we can to minimise the impact of the Cyprus banking crisis on our people.'
The move from the MoD follows the Government today re-assuring British troops that it would be providing full compensation in the event their savings are raided if the tax proposal is passed by the Cypriot Government.
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It was stated yesterday that troops would be compensated for 'reasonable losses', leading to fears that they could still be affected by the tax.
There are some 30,000 British expats living in Cyprus who will however be affected. Some 18,000 of these are pensioners, and the British Government took the step yesterday of freezing state pension payments to them so this money does not get caught in the savings tax.
Expat pensioners are urged to alter the account they receive their pension into to one based outside of Cyprus.
A revised version of the savings tax was revealed today, which will see a 6.75 per cent levy on deposits over 20,000 euros, while those with over 100,000 euros will be charged 9.9 per cent.
Initially those with savings worth less than 20,000 euros would have been subject to the 6.75 per cent levy.
Residents of the UK who have savings in the Bank of Cyprus UK and Laiki Bank UK will not be affected by the levy, both banks have said.