The federation of English language schools has called on the government to cap the proposed 50c bed tax at nine nights, the length of stay of a typical tourist to Malta.
Feltom president Alex Fenech said that if the government was adamant in going ahead with the introduction of the new tax in April, it should cap it so as not to harm the schools' long-term business.
From April 1, a tax of 50c will be imposed for every guest night spent in any tourist accommodation. Host families, under the legal notice implementing the measure, have been excluded from paying the tax.
The government had already postponed the measure once in response to pleas from the tourist industry but recently ruled out the possibility of doing so again.
Mr Fenech said the tax would primarily affect the long-stay students who came to Malta to study during the winter and shoulder months. It would also damage the island's non-European markets because the average student from those countries stayed for 12 nights.
"Feltom disagrees with this new tax outright. The timing is terrible, to say the least. But if the government presses on with it, it must be capped at nine nights. Otherwise, the tax would have an irreparable effect on long-term students who come to Malta to study English for months," he said.
When contacted, a spokesman for the Parliamentary Secretariat for Tourism said that although the extent had yet to be decided, the government was planning to cap the tax.
"The government appreciates the concerns raised in the case of long stays and is favourably considering capping the proposed tax to a maximum number of nights. This should enable generation of revenue without impacting competitivity," the spokesman said.
Mr Fenech said the introduction of the new tax came at a time when the English language teaching industry was working hard to attract long-term students who would contribute to the economy during the low tourist season.
Any additional taxation, he argued, must be seen alongside the increased utility rates, which would raise the cost of the Malta product at a time when the industry must compete with countries of weaker currencies such as the US dollar and the sterling. Without negating the principle that education must not be taxed, such a tax should not be introduced before the sector recovered, he said.
While expressing satisfaction that students living with host families have been exempted from paying the tax, Mr Fenech said this discriminated against people staying in hotels and self-catering apartments.
He also complained that, with just over one month to go before its introduction, language schools still had no idea how the tax was going to be collected. He insisted that schools did not want to become tax collectors.
"If the government must introduce such a tax, it must find the means to do so directly and not burden educational institutions with additional costly administration," he said.
The director general of the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises - GRTU, Vince Farrugia, said the tax was not a bed tax but a "bad" tax.
"Malta should not be taxing people even before they came to Malta. This tax will be reflected in the cost of a holiday in Malta, even if just by 1c. The country already had one of the costliest per passenger tax when coming to Malta and this extra tax would surely affect our competitiveness," he said.