The Environment Ministry has issued a consultation document on the removal of eco-tax and its replacement by the WEEE Directive – but it has already met with resistance from the GRTU.

All member states were supposed to transpose the WEEE directive into national law by 2004 and actually did so by 2006. But Brussels was not happy with the way Malta interpreted it and issued first a formal notice and then a reasoned opinion.

Malta had anyway pre-empted WEEE by introducing the eco-contribution in 2004, based on the ‘polluter pays’ principle, ostensibly making importers pay towards the recycling or treatment of a list of items ranging from beverage containers and mattresses to car tyres and fridges. It ranges from a few cents to €69.88 per item.

The new WEEE tax would apply to everything that operates with either electricity or batteries, from white goods to toys, from sports equipment to power tools. The new system will cover hundreds of items, a considerable increase compared to the eco-tax, and would be implemented in two phases across various categories of products.

The promise to remove the unpopular eco-contribution was made in Budget 2015. It is estimated that the financial contributions imposed by the directive should be lower than those under the eco-tax regime for most products.

Minister Leo Brincat has already held separate meetings with the Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry as well as the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises (GRTU). He also plans to consult the Malta Council for Social and Economic Development.

One of the stipulations of the draft law is that importers need to take up one of the various waste management schemes by mid-June or submit a plan on how they would align themselves with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) of the EU.

The GRTU is demanding “without any reservation” a clear guarantee from the government that it will first exempt all those operators that between 2007 and 2015 were carrying their environmental obligations under eco-contribution, from the legal obligations under the WEEE Directive covering the same period.

“This is a cardinal point for the GRTU and a priority because it is not acceptable that an operator pays an environmental tax twice on the same product. GRTU will be evaluating the draft Legal Notice and will be consulting its members before presenting its official comments to the minister in the coming weeks,” the GRTU said.

The new system will cover hundreds of items, a considerable increase compared to the eco-tax

The government is proposing to introduce a bank guarantee imposed on each self-compliant producer or third parties placing electrical and electronic waste (EEE) on the market showing that the management of all WEEE will be financed.

The level of bank guarantee is calculated on the basis of a flat rate per tonne of the average weight of EEE placed on the market in Malta in the three preceding years. A capping of €50,000 is being established such that the bank guarantee for self-compliant will not exceed for individual producers.

By way of example, a self-compliant producer who places 50 tonnes of EEE on the market would require a bank guarantee of about €10,000 in 2016 increasing to €15,000 in 2021. For producers placing more than 50 tonnes of EEE on the market, the bank guarantee would increase accordingly, to a maximum cap of €50,000 for a single producer.

The bank guarantees would provide cover against the costs required for the management of a producer’s WEEE if he defaults for any reason, limiting the government’s exposure to resultant liabilities.

The amendments also propose a fine at a flat rate of €750 per tonne of EEE for unregistered operators.

Collective WEEE management schemes will pay the proposed bank guarantee based on the waste placed on the market by its members – but this would comparatively be less than that required from self-compliant producers.

The government estimates that the global bank guarantee to be paid by all the scheme(s) would range between circa €300,000 in 2016 to circa €460,000 by 2021.

The consultation is asking for feedback on the guarantees as well as asking whether any other changes should be made to the WEEE regulations.

It isalso asking for the main reasons why producers fail to register with the competent authority in a timely manner.

Eco-tax has to be removed by September 2015. The government brings in €7.8 million a year from it.

This consultation closes on May 8.

Feedback should be sent to consultations.msdec@gov.mt.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.