Chamber calls for immediate implementation of eco-contribution legislation

If the government has no interest in implementing its own laws then it should inform the business community immediately so that each company can take the appropriate actions within the parameters of the law, the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise said.

The chamber said it was exasperated at the government’s inability to implement a legal notice on eco-contributions.

After numerous meetings with the Finance Minister and the Prime Minister, pending issues remained unresolved and the chamber could only conclude that the government was paralysed and unable to implement its own laws.

The chamber said in a statement that after a five years delay, a legal notice to regulate exemptions from eco-contribution was published last February.

But it could not be implemented because it was published without the backing of complementary regulation. Another deadline for payment of the eco-contribution by companies fell today.

The chamber said it was completely unacceptable that eligible companies were not able to benefit from such exemptions because the necessary administrative arrangements had still not been put into place.

The application process to qualify for exemptions has as yet not been communicated except with the recent setting up of an approving body.

The government, the chamber said, could no longer tell the law-abiding business community to wait for the exemption that was rightfully theirs at law.

This was companies, the economy and the environment, dearly.

For until it was convenient for the government to implement the law and bring its house in order, legitimate companies had to incur extra costs and double payments of eco-contribution as well as the relevant expenses to participate in private waste management schemes, the participation of which was required by law.

The government could no longer expect law-abiding businesses to operate and compete while incurring and paying these double costs.

Out of fairness to law-abiding companies, the chamber insisted that the law that was published was implemented forthwith and in its entirety.