The operators of Café Premier benefited from a scheme that cancelled 80 per cent of penalties owed to the VAT Department, The Sunday Times of Malta has learnt.

The application was made by the company that operated the café, Cities Entertainment, after the government controversially agreed to buy back the public lease of the Valletta property.

In a report, the Auditor General expressed “reservations” over whether Cities Entertainment should have been eligible to pay just €8,000 of €40,000 owed to the VAT Department in penalties and administrative fines for late payments.

Café Premier has been at the centre of a political storm since the National Audit Office released a report saying that a €4.2 million deal under which the government
agreed to buy back the public lease of the Valletta property was marked by a lack of transparency and poor governance.

More in The Sunday Times of Malta and the e-paper on timesofmalta.com Premium.

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