Parliament on Monday started debating a Bill with a number of tough amendments to various laws, bringing them up to date and introducing changes where practice had shown they were needed.

Piloting the Bill’s second reading, Parliamentary Secretary Jason Azzopardi said the amendments included traffic regulations, recognition of foreign decorations awarded to Maltese people, local councils, the Malta Resources Authority, the VAT law, the quarantine of plants, Transport Malta and other aspects. The Bill could therefore be called an omnibus.

The first section of the Bill involved taxis. Any taxi driver or owner who was found to have broken the law could be fined a maximum of €10,000 or six months’ jail, or fine and jail together. The guilty part could have their permit, licence or any other authorisation revoked. The taxi could be confiscated for between one and three months for the first offence, between three and six months for the second offence and between six and 12 months for any subsequent offence.

Taxi drivers must have identification tags.

Dr Azzopardi said the second section of the Bill regarded the Ġieħ ir-Repubblika scheme, which would henceforth afford recognition to Maltese people from all walks of life who received honours from overseas for any reason. To date the law did not allow recognition of any award from an international organisation of which Malta was a member, such as the European Union.

The EU had awarded the European Quality Defence Service medal to a number of Armed Forces of Malta personnel for distinguished service overseas.

On the third section of the Bill, concerning local councils, he said there needed to be a number of amendments, not least with a view to doing away with perceived contraditions with another law.

A system of five regional committees would be set up, each of which would be led by a president to be elected by local councillors from all councils forming the region. Each local council forming part of that region would elect a representative to the regional committee. The regional vice-president would be elected from the regional committee’s members. Each regional committee would appoint a secretary from a pool of persons.

Any change of composition of a region would be decided on by the minister responsible for local councils, following consultations with the Association of Local Councils, after taking due consideration of geographical aspects, population and the number of local councils in each region.

Dr Azzopardi said the fourth section of the Bill involved important amendments to the VAT Act. The amendments would broadly allow the Minister of Finance to waive or delay the application of interests on outstanding dues by seven days in order to encourage the electronic submission of returns by registered VAT taxpayers. Similarly it would also be possible to suspend administrative penalties for seven days.

The fifth section of the Bill included amendments to the law governing the Malta Resources Authority. The law currently established a number of directorates with clear responsibilities but not enough management flexibility and resource optimisation. It was now being proposed that the MRA would be enabled to establish directorates, units, divisions or sections and delegate them with their responsibilities.

Another amendment would clear up applicable procedures in the imposition of administrative penalties and fines. This was intended to safeguard the due process of administrative action. It would also set the appeals procedure from MRA decisions. Dr Azzopardi said the allowing of 30 days from the MRA’s decision for the purpose of appealing was more than reasonable.

The Bill also included the types of administrative penalties that could be imposed, with 20 days allowed for the perpetrator to say why such penalties should not be imposed. That period of 20 days could be summarily reduced if the case prima facie involved national security.

Interest of eight per cent would start accruing from the date of the authority’s decision if upheld. No warrant of prohibitory injunction would be issued by any court to restrict the MRA from exercising its powers at law.

Administrative penalties would be regarded as civil liability, and anybody consciously obstructing the service of relative documents could be fined up to €70,000. If this was done by a corporate body it would be responsible in solidum for the payment of that penalty.

Dr Azzopardi said the Plant Quarantine Act – the subject of the sixth section of the Bill – provided regulations to avoid the introduction of plant disease into Malta. This law had actually been enacted in 2001, but some small shortcomings had been identified in its operation. The Bill also included a definition of the Plant Health Service, which already existed in practice but was not included in the law.

The first Plant Protection Board had been set up in 2008 and met monthly to discuss plant quarantine, but some changes were needed in its composition. The Bill proposed that the board would also include a representative of the Department of Agriculture. The representatives of the educational sector and the water services would respectively be substituted by representatives of the University of Malta and the Malta Resources Authority.

The Bill also provided for the appointment of a board secretary.

Dr Azzopardi said other proposed amendments involved the inspectorate’s powers. To date, enforcement action could only be carried out by the police, but it was now being proposed that plant health inspectors too should have powers to confiscate. They would also be given right of entry for quicker and more effective enforcement.

Another amendment would facilitate the payment of court-imposed fines, but since these were currently no serious deterrent, going only up to €465, they were now being increased to up to €20,000 for any third or subsequent offence.

The seventh section of the Bill concerned animal protection, with amendments to distinguish between fines for a first offence and higher ones for relapsing. Fines for a first offence were being increased to €500, for a second offence to a minimum of €4,000 and a maximum of €30,000, and for a third or subsequent offence to a maximum of €50,000 and not more than one year’s imprisonment.

Dr Azzopardi said the eighth and final section of the Bill involved the Employment and Industrial Relations Act. The law was being amended to do away with the limitation that only department officials could be inspectors. Henceforth, any other person so designated by the minister could be an inspector. This would make for greater flexibility and efficiency of implementation.

Concluding, he said the various sections of the Various Laws Amendment Bill proved the government’s determination to update and invigorate any law that no longer stood up to the times and, even more, to enforce the new provisions.