GreenPak accuses government of unfair competition, breaking rules

By refusing to abide by its own rules, the government has for the past five years been denying a legitimate right to GreenPak’s members and bringing about a situation of unfair competition, according to CEO Mario Schembri.

“GreenPak has been in operation since January 1, 2006 and has always maintained its members were entitled to full and immediate eco tax exemptions,” Mr Schembri said, adding he was pleased the Ombudsman confirmed that GreenPak’s claim was backed by the 2004 Eco Contribution Act itself and re-affirmed by Legal Notice 74 of 2008.

GreenPak said business leaders reacted to the Ombudsman’s decision.

Helga Ellul, president of the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Enterprise was quoted as saying her organisation was thankful the Ombudsman brought in “much needed light into a very darkened room”. During dealings on the issue of eco tax exemptions and refunds, the government had always been vague and elusive, she said. Now the Ombudsman had decided that on the day a producer signed up to an approved scheme, the government was immediately obliged to issue credits and exemptions.

“The unequivocal statements made by the Ombudsman in his recommendation have also gone a long way towards answering the question of whether producers importing electrical and electronic equipment are entitled to eco-contribution exemptions. It would appear that the answer to such a question is a resounding yes,” said Tancred Tabone, vice president of the Chamber and a leading importer of electrical and electronic goods. He said the sooner the government acted on the Ombudsman’s recommendation the quicker would the country see waste recycling increase.

For Pierre Fava, president of the Malta Employers Association, given the prevailing economic hardships, it was welcoming to learn that many companies were entitled to money they had been unfairly made to pay for the past five years or so. “Companies now justifiably expect the government to issue these refunds without any further delays as this money will go some way to help them remain competitive, maintain jobs and survive in these difficult times of economic downturn,” he said.

Antoine Naudi, partner at the law firm Naudi Mizzi & Associates, which handled the case for Green Dot, operators of the GreenPak scheme, welcomed the decision. He said the eco contribution was never intended to be another source of income for the government to the detriment of the commercial community. “The decision reached by the Ombudsman vindicates our client’s position and it will now be interesting to see how the situation will unfold over the next few weeks”.

GreenPak said this latest development also attracted the attention of the Packaging Recovery Organisation of Europe – ProEurope whose members operate national schemes in 33 countries and are responsible for recycling millions of tonnes of waste worldwide.

The organisation’s CEO, Joachim Quoden, said ProEurope could never understand how a small island like Malta, with its inherent difficulties and higher costs to recycle waste, would make it even more difficult on itself by imposing further economic burden on industry in the form of environmental taxes. “Now that this serious shortcoming has been finally recognised, ProEurope looks forward to see corrective action being taken to see Malta too doing well with the recycling of its packaging waste,” he added.

In his concluding remarks, the Ombudsman noted that developments during the course of his investigation indicated the parties were working towards an amicable situation of outstanding issues. He recommended such efforts be brought to a fruitful conclusion as speedily as possible.

Martin Borg, president of GreenPak Cooperative Society Ltd, said the ball was now in the government’s court. He said the financial constraints faced by the country had to be borne in mind and the society was prepared to reach some form of agreement for the timely refund of the money due. In addition, the co-operative society, “will continue to operate with a view towards redressing the country’s environmental imbalance that will come back to haunt it if it is not tackled with urgency”.