The Federation of Language Teaching Organisations of Malta (Feltom) has joined the chorus of tourism operators in its opposition to the new proposed bed tax, asking who will be absorbing the estimated €250,000 that the industry had to pay.
A spokesman for Feltom said that while it supported measures to improve the general over-all product, such initiatives should only be introduced following consultation.
He was reacting to a story in the Times of Malta yesterday which revealed how the government has postponed the introduction of a new tourism tax following disagreement with operators.
The 50c nightly eco levy announced in the last Budget was meant to come into effect in April but there is yet no agreement with operators on how the money will be collected.
A Tourism Ministry spokeswoman confirmed that, although the new tax will still be theoretically rolled out at the beginning of next month, the money would not start being collected before June.
The ELT industry had already criticised the new tax when it was first announced but yesterday said it supported the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association’s stand on its introduction.
“When this measure was announced during last year’s budget speech, Feltom was one of the first organisations to express its reservations about this eco tax especially with its timing and implementation,” the spokesman said.
“Besides the lack of consultation in the decision making process that led to this proposal, Feltom is also concerned about the implementation of this tax, its timing and on who would eventually end up absorbing the unbudgeted cost of €250,000 for 2016 for the ELT industry,” the spokesman said.
He added: “While Feltom is in favour of measures that may coun-ter tourism’s impact on our environment, any measures should come into effect following an ample consultation exercise with all stakeholders that are bound to be affected by such measures.”
For MHRA president Tony Zahra, the introduction of the new tax was “not tenable” because there was no agreement on how the levy would be collected.
“The MHRA has had innumerable meetings with the government on this matter, the latest being held only last Friday, but to date we are still expecting formal feedback from the government. “Since there is no clear direction on the collection method, we have already told the government that, at this point, the introduction of the environment contribution on April 1, as was originally communicated in the Budget speech, is no longer tenable,” he said.
Last month Tourism shadow minister Antoine Borg told parliament that the new tax should ideally be put off to November, a quieter time for tourism.
He said several questions remained unanswered, such as whether there would be any special arrangements on pre-paid package groups, who would actually be collecting this tax and how.
The previous administration also tried to introduce such a tax in 2010 but it was never implemented following fierce opposition by the stakeholders, particularly the MHRA.
The 50c tax was then replaced by a capped contribution of €3.50 per tourist per stay, irrespective of the number of nights spent on the island or whether the tourist stayed in a hotel or other accommodation. But even this never saw the light of day.