The granting of a retroactive licence to Green MT set a dangerous precedent and could be interpreted as an encouragement to operators to commence operations without the need to wait for the necessary licenses to be issued first, the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry said.

It said in a statement that it failed understand what brought about delays in renewing an annual license as long as performance targets for the previous year/s were achieved.

“If the scheme was entitled to a renewal of its license, then it should have been issued immediately as of January 1, this year. Otherwise, similar circumstances give rise to uncertainty and send conflicting messages to the business community,” it said.

The chamber said that granting licences retroactively could be detrimental to the interests of consumers and society, particularly where health and safety issues were concerned.

Such a practice was also detrimental to bona fide companies which had to compete against unlicensed operators in an unfair playing field.

The chamber stressed that administrative delays in issuing licenses and their renewals had to be ironed out.

“In a normal competitive business environment, the granting of licenses in a retroactive manner cannot be contemplated. The Malta Chamber expects Mepa to give a full explanation of what has happened in this case and whether such a practice is a standard procedure or not.

“To compound the problem being faced by bona fide schemes and affiliated companies, the Malta Chamber must once more emphasise that a number of its members are still owed eco-contribution refunds, dating back to 2004 despite being fully compliant with the relevant legislation and being duly registered with a fully-authorised scheme.

“Whilst denouncing the practice of retroactive licenses, the Malta Chamber continues to expect the due refunds to be paid without any further delay,” it said.