Government may waive new departure tax on children

The government is considering excluding children from payment of the new Lm10 departure tax, which has pushed up the already high price of travel for Maltese.

Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech said when contacted that following a request by the Federated Association of Travel and Tourism Agents (FATTA), the government was looking at the possibility of reworking the tax but he stressed he could not give any guarantee.

FATTA has requested that the government revise the additional departure tax, at least on holidaying families.

The association is hoping to obtain at least this concession from the government, which from August will double the departure tax to Lm20 on every passenger buying an air ticket from Malta.

FATTA representatives met Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Mr Fenech on Monday night to discuss this and other issues.

Outbound travellers will now have to fork out more than Lm40 in local charges for European destinations, making the Maltese the highest taxed passengers in Europe. Travel agents fear the latest hike might lead to a decline in bookings.

FATTA has instead proposed a minimum charge for both incoming and outbound passengers but this appears to be a no-go area for the government.

The government is more inclined to want to reduce taxation for tourism in an attempt to entice more foreigners to the island.

After an informal meeting of EU finance ministers last month in Luxembourg, certain states agreed to impose a levy on air travel to fund development aid in Africa. According to EU rules, a new tax can only be introduced following unanimous agreement.

The Maltese government made it clear it was against the introduction of any such tax and therefore argued with FATTA that imposing a new tax on tourism could be deemed as contradictory in this respect.

FATTA president Ian Tonna said the association expressed fears that the new tax would hurt outbound travel.

"The Prime Minister understood our concerns but he asked us to take the entire fiscal picture into consideration," he said.

Mr Tonna however made it clear that the association still intended to question the legality of the departure tax at EU level.

FATTA last month filed a judicial protest claiming that the way in which the Lm10 increase was being imposed was unacceptable to travel agents, operators within the local market and members of the association.