The Malta Financial Services Authority said that contrary to claims by the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises (GRTU) company registration fees were not increased but decreased.

It said that company registration fees were reduced from €349 to €245 (a 30% decrease) and in the case of electronically filed registrations, these fees have been further reduced to €210 (that is, an overall reduction of 40%). Likewise, companies with the same share capital have had their annualreturn fees reduced from €163 to €100, amounting to a decrease of 38% (and €85 or 47% less, if filed electronically).

As regarded larger companies, a company with an authorised share capital of €115,000 such as the one referred to in the same report would pay a registration fee of €880 (a 24% increase over the old fee of €710) and €744 for electronic registration (a 4.8% increase over the old fee of €710), which is certainly nowhere near the 270% increase quoted in the report.

The MFSA said that fees were also reduced for the registration of annual returns by companies with a share capital of up to €10,000 and for the electronic registration of companies with a share capital of up to €5,000.

The annual return fee for a company with an authorised share capital of €115,000 increased from €326 to €600 (€510 if filed electronically), while for a company with an authorised share capital of €100,000 this has increased from €326 to €400 (€340 for electronic filing).

While there were adjustments in the share capital bands that might have adversely affected a limited number of companies, the new rates were intended to introduce measured increases with respect to the larger companies and to lighten the burden on a relatively bigger number of small companies. Company registration fees, the MFSA said, were last revised on 1 January 2004.

With regards to penalties, the Registrar of Companies imposes penalties equivalent to 1% of the maximum established by the Companies Act. These penalties have never been increased since the coming into force of the Act in 1995.

The GRTU is claiming increases of up to 270%. This, it said, discouraged businesses from increasing share capital.