MoD flies emergency cash to Cyprus for British personnel 19 March 2013 Last updated at 18:53 An RAF plane carrying 1m euros is flying to Cyprus from Britain as a "contingency measure" to provide military personnel with emergency loans, the Ministry of Defence said. The money is to be used for British personnel and their families if cash machines and debit cards stop working. The move came after a controversial one-off levy of up to almost 10% on savings in Cyprus was mooted. The tax is a condition for Cyprus to get a loan from the EU and IMF. Cyprus needs a 10bn euro (£8.7bn; $13bn) bailout to rescue its banks. Salary needs A revised version of the tax would mean a 6.75% levy on deposits over 20,000 euros, with those over 100,000 euros charged at 9.9% - but the Cypriot parliament voted against the move after a debate on Tuesday. The levy was due to affect many of the 3,000 UK military personnel in Cyprus, and up to an estimated 25,000 expatriates. The cash - about £850,000 - is being flown out on one of the two weekly flights that travel between Britain and Cyprus. It is being carried on a Voyager aircraft, which left from RAF Brize Norton and is expected to arrive at RAF Akrotiri at about 20:00 GMT. An MoD spokesman said the situation was being kept under review and that it would consider further shipments if required, but that the cash was a contingency and not currently due to be distributed. "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," they said. We're determined to do everything we can to minimise the impact of the Cyprus banking crisis on our people. Chancellor George Osborne had already said the UK would compensate any British troops in Cyprus hit by plans to introduce a bank levy. And British government workers would also be protected, he said.