Luxury boats registered in Malta will not be affected by the hike in licences announced in the budget, a Finance Ministry spokesman has confirmed.
During the budget speech, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech announced a revision of the annual renewal fees for yachts but only those registered under the Small Ship Regulations will be affected - in other words, boats whose registration starts with the letters P or S. These are usually small pleasure boats.
Cabin cruisers and yachts on the Malta register, some of them costing hundreds of thousands of euros, will be spared. The vast majority, yachts under 24 metres, will continue paying between €200 and €280 a year while those longer than 24 metres pay €570.
The Finance Ministry confirmed the information but would not elaborate as to why the big yachts were not being targeted. Government sources, however, said the revision would have affected foreign boats flying the Maltese flag and any additional charges would have impinged on Malta's competitiveness in this sector.
As at the end of September, there were about 2,296 yachts on the register, of which about 1,776 are Maltese-owned.
The luxury boats were spared the tax because the government is wary of scaring off foreign yacht owners, some of whom use Malta as a base generating business for a range of service industries that thrive on the maintenance of the cruisers.
In the budget delivered last Monday, the word "yacht" falls within the definition of small ship as found in the Small Ships Regulations. According to the description on this register, these small boats are used solely in Maltese territorial and internal waters and do not exceed 24 metres in length. The owners of these boats can expect to pay anything between €90 and €200 more on their annual licences.
According to last year's figures, there are nearly 11,000 vessels listed on the small ship register. Just over 2,600 of these are under 3.64 metres long and have no engine. These don't pay a licence and this will not change under the new regime. But the next 845 vessels, which are over 3.64 metres, do not have engines and renew the licence every five years, will pay an annual licence of €90.
A total of 3,628 vessels having an engine of up to 9.9 hp will have to pay €120 yearly; 567 boats with an engine of between 10 and 25 hp will pay €140 a year; 852 with an engine of between 26 and 50 hp will pay €165; 505 with an engine of between 51 and 75 hp will pay €185; 1,454 having an engine of between 76 and 150 hp will pay €190 and 475 with an engine larger than 150 hp will pay €200.
The register for big boats includes yachts that are over six metres long and can navigate outside Maltese territorial waters. Yachts are registered according to their length and weight.
Commercial vessels and pleasure yachts weighing more than 50 tonnes and which are less than 24 metres in length pay a licence fee of €280 a year. Those under 24 metres and weighing less than 50 gross tonnes pay €200 a year. There are over 2,040 of these vessels with nearly 1,700 of them owned by Maltese nationals.
There are 100 pleasure yachts longer than 24 metres and these pay an annual fee of €570 while commercial vessels, 55 of them, pay €1,935 a year. Forty-three of the former 22 are owned by Maltese nationals.
The budget also came with a pledge to start studying sites for new yacht marinas, a move which may bring some much-sought-after space. At the same time, government-owned marinas in Msida, Ta' Xbiex and Gozo will be privatised.