The Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Enterprise has welcomed the long-promised application form that will allow companies to claim back the eco-contribution but called on the government to refund companies for payments dating back to 2005.

The publication should pave the way for a smooth exemption procedure for companies who had to pay the eco tax even though they were exempted from doing so through a legal notice, chamber president Helga Ellul said.

The application, available on the Resources Ministry website, allows companies to file for an exemption of the eco tax in line with two legal notices published this year and in 2008.

The government introduced a system through which companies registered in a scheme involving domestic door-to-door waste collection would be refunded the eco-contribution paid on certain products.

Registered firms with authorised schemes that can prove through an audit trail that they recovered 70 per cent of all waste packaging materials can receive a tax exemption for the period starting July 1 2009.

Describing it as a “long, overdue step”, Mrs Ellul said the application was published after heavy and “relentless” pressure from the stakeholders through, among other things, strongly worded statements in the media.

Publishing the applications was positive because many companies had absorbed a double cost of packaging waste while others had evaded their legal obligations because of the government’s lack of enforcement, Mrs Ellul said.

She called on the government to take the final step and issue the refunds to companies who have paid eco-contribution and waste management scheme charges between 2005 and 2010.