Budget measures favour classic cars

Roads Minister Jesmond Mugliett on Friday told Parliament that several measures have been included in the 2007 Budget to favour owners of classic vehicles.

The cut-off date that makes vehicles eligible to a 50 per cent reduction in the Road Licence has been brought forward five years from January 1, 1971, to January 1, 1976;

The cut-off date for reductions in the registration tax has also been brought forward five years from January 1, 1951, to January 1, 1956.

Vehicles manufactured before January 1, 1976, that do not have Licensing and Testing Department (LDT) documentation are being exempted from registration tax. This Mr Mugliett said, applies mainly to vehicles that are found abandoned in fields.

The Vehicle Authenticity Board, or as it is better known, the Vintage Board, was set up in 2003 after it was announced in that year's Budget that vehicles that had been authenticated as manufactured before January 1, 1971, would be eligible to a 50 per cent reduction in the Road Licence.

Mr Mugliett said the board met 10 times between October 2005 and last September during which 263 vehicles were classified as been classics. The board is made up of representatives of the Maltese Federation of Antique Vehicles (FMVA), the Malta Transport Authority (ADT) and the Roads Ministry.

So far, Mr Mugliett said, 1,424 vehicles have been classified, of which 96 are new registrations.

Asked to comment on this announcement, Dr Lino Gauci Borda, president of the Old Motors Club, a member of the FMVA, said this was "quite an improvement".

Classic vehicles, he pointed out, are not normally in daily use on the road and most owners would use them for a few hours when traffic is light and only if the weather is good.

"Classic vehicles are a tourist attraction," he said. "More could be done but I am satisfied that slowly we are on the right road."

The OMC is currently in talks to save an old Maltese bus which it intends to use as a mobile office at its events and to safeguard it as a tourist attraction