Chamber wants its concerns addressed

The Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise said it expected that its members' concerns over the eco-contribution would be taken into consideration when the government amends the relevant legal notice.

Chamber deputy director general Kevin J. Borg said that Tonio Fenech, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, yesterday afternoon contacted the chamber and confirmed that the concerns of the business community were largely incorporated into the new amendments which are to be published imminently.

Contacted yesterday by The Times, chamber president Louis Apap-Bologna said the chamber had always recognised the importance of the environment as a key strategic issue but stressed that environmental issues, after years of neglect, must be addressed equitably in line with the current competitive realities facing the local business.

Mr Apap-Bologna said this situation had unearthed issues of a policy and administrative nature.

"We are experiencing a fiscal upheaval only four months after eco-contribution was introduced with the original list. The business community has just managed to overcome the distractions caused in September and is now being sidetracked from its normal course of duty once again to ascertain compliance with this new list," he said.

Further hindrances on productivity were posed by the fact that this contribution was to be levied on IT systems, in which the country needed to invest to enhance productivity and narrow the digital divide with other more developed economies, he said.

Besides, Mr Apap-Bologna added, there are various grey areas of an administrative nature that must be addressed. The importance of introducing a uniform system was of utmost importance both in terms of enforcement as well as to render a simpler compliance for economic operators. A lack of consultation prior to the publication of the legal notice resulted in general confusion among chamber members involved in various sectors. These economic operators are being expected to comply with the new regulations without adequate preparation, he said.

In an effort to avoid a similar situation, the chamber requested information from the authorities immediately after the first announcement of an extension to the eco-contribution product list. This information was necessary to allow for adequate planning whilst ascertaining maximum preparation on the part of the business community.

But unfortunately, the list of new products falling under the scope of eco-contribution with the relevant rates was not forthcoming until the publication of the legal notice on New Year's Eve. This was despite various reminders and persistence by the chamber in its efforts to be pre-informed.

The chamber's representatives on the government-appointed Eco-Contribution Commission were equally unaware of the latest developments. In fact, they were not in a position to provide any additional information to the chamber for onward circulation to the business community. The chamber's representatives had emphasised - within the commission - that any tax imposed needed to be relative to the value of the product in question.

Had proper consultation taken place well before the publication of the legal notice, the business community and the country at large would have been in a much healthier position as certain issues and complications might have been anticipated and avoided, Mr Apap-Bologna said.