The local operators of international car rental franchise Goldcar have lifted the controversial ‘Gozo tax’ they were charging clients who take their rented cars to the sister island.
Last January, Times of Malta revealed that Goldcar was charging an extra €9 a day to clients visiting Gozo. This had led to hundreds of complaints by customers – mostly tourists – visiting Malta.
Goldcar Malta has now changed its policy and it agreed to lift the extra Gozo charge, saying this was just “a misunderstanding”.
A Goldcar Malta spokesman told this newspaper “the company is not charging the Gozo cover any longer” and that “this was a result of a misunderstanding on our conditions”.
Acknowledging that the imposition of a Gozo cover was a slip-up, the spokesman shifted the blame on to the foreign franchise owners – based in Spain – stating that “anything we need to change has to go through a long process”.
When the story was first reported earlier this year, Goldcar Malta justified the Gozo tax by stating that this was necessary to cover any possible damage to their vehicles on the Gozo ferries.
According to Goldcar Malta, vehicles were not insured on the boats and the charge in question was intended to make up for this deficiency.
These claims were immediately shot down by the Rent-a-Car Association, which said it had never heard of such a fee being levied by the industry.