Transport Minister Austin Gatt has asked the Malta Transport Authority (ADT) to radically reform vehicle licensing and the registration of temporarily-imported vehicles on the basis of a study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The report concluded that certain weaknesses in the issuing of temporary permits made it possible for invalid permits to be granted.
In a letter to the ADT chairman, Dr Gatt said:
"The report confirms my concerns about the unsatisfactory quality of procedures in the administration of vehicle licensing and registration and the need to implement radical reforms in this area."
The minister referred to the part of the report dealing with 790 vehicles on which registration tax had been calculated but not yet paid. This reflected an increase of more than 300 vehicles in under 18 months.
Dr Gatt said the situation was aggravated by a further 331 vehicles on which valuations had not yet been made, bringing the total vehicles waiting to pay registration tax to 1,121, some of which had been waiting for over three years.
"This is an unacceptable situation and I expect that ADT draws up immediate plans to regularise the present situation and ensure that, once regularised, it is not repeated. I expect that ADT submits its plan of operation by the end of July."
In its report, PricewaterhouseCoopers concluded that, according to its legal advice, the ADT did not always interpret the regulations regarding the matter in the correct way.
The minister called for the legal notice regulating this area to be amended to provide that residents of Malta may not be given a temporary permit to import a foreign-registered vehicle. Residents should be obliged to register the vehicle and pay registration tax within seven days of importation.
Non-residents would have the right to import a foreign-registered vehicle and keep it for six months, after which they would have to register it and pay the relative registration tax.
They could be given a one-time six-month extension if they produced a contract of employment showing they were to be employed in Malta for a further period of six months at most.
Exempted or authorised vehicles would have distinctive plates or security windscreen stickers showing that the car has been exempted and the month of expiry of such exemption.
The vehicle had to have a paid-up road licence and insurance, failing which it would not be allowed on the road and would be forced to register in Malta.
Fees and fines had to be established and enforcement powers had to be granted to the ADT's enforcement officers and to other enforcement forces.
Dr Gatt said that, as part of a broad review of all the licensing and registration procedures, the ADT should draw up and issue detailed work flows to clearly explain how applications should be treated internally.
He said that following the ministry's approval of the authority's plan to implement the new legal notice and internal procedures, the ADT should advise affected persons and assist them to come in line with the new provisions.
The authority should also consolidate its Enforcement Unit into one, coherent section that operated independently of but in liaison with, different units of the authority, had responsibility for all enforcement officers and assigned officers to tasks as and when required.
The authority was directed to immediately refund all deposits made by clients and accepted by the authority without having any basis at law.
It was also directed to immediately stop the illegal practice of allowing dealers to hold foreign plated vehicles and to ensure that these were either registered immediately or else towed away.