Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/929711
maltatoday SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018 4 News Malta toys with extending passport sale through Surveymonkey online poll Regulator says citizen lists should be published more frequently THE regulator of Malta's citi- zenship sale has called for a more frequent release of natu- ralisation data. The Office of the Regulator of the Individual Investor Pro- gramme (ORIIP), which sells Maltese passports for €650,000, told Identity Malta – the agency that runs the scheme – to con- sider issuing statistical infor- mation on a regular and more frequent basis rather divulging it only when requested in Parlia- ment or when published annu- ally. Malta's national list of natural- ised citizens is published annu- ally, with a 12-month delay. But the list of citizens who acquired citizenship through the IIP is included within the same list of citizens who become Maltese citizens by ordinary naturalisa- tion processes. The ORIIP also acknowledged the way the naturalisation list was being published alphabeti- cally by name, rather than by sur- name, making it harder to distin- guish clearly between those who qualified under the IIP and those who qualified through naturali- sation. The regulator also carried out an internal exercise in order to ensure that the details of IIP ap- plicants and dependents were duly published in the Govern- ment Gazette. "This was done by obtaining the list from the IMA and com- paring the names with those printed in the Gazette accord- ingly. The exercise was success- fully concluded and no issues were identified." But the ORIIP recently also refused a Freedom of Informa- tion request by MaltaToday to identity which of the naturalised citizens appearing in the annual list had in fact obtained their citizenship through the IIP. "Such documentation is not held by the ORIIP. Although this office verifies the details of IIP applicants and dependants against the list published in the Government Gazette, such in- formation is only available for ORIIP officers during the period of vetting and is not retained once the vetting exercise is com- pleted." MaltaToday's request has also been submitted to Identity Mal- ta. A referendum of sorts is under- way: the agency that runs Malta's sale of passports, Identity Malta, has launched an online poll to ask the public if the Individual Investor Programme should be expanded. Over 1,100 families have applied for the programme, generating over €590 million in direct pay- ments to Malta's posterity fund and consolidated fund. But the programme is capped at some 1,800 main applicants: that does not include dependents. The number of main applicants is so far at just over 30% of the quota fixed at the start of the IIP. The first question in the online poll asks the public if the number of applications under the IIP should be capped at law or left at the open discretion of the government. The Maltese government bills it as "one of the leading and most rig- orous ones globally as each applica- tion must go through a four-tiered due diligence process." The programme was designed by citizenship experts Henley & Part- ners, which takes a 4% cut on each of the €650,000 applications for Maltese passports. "The main objective of the updat- ing and revision of the Programme is to ensure it remains at the fore- front in reputation, attractiveness and rigorousness, and at the same time to address those administra- tive processes which require re- visiting following the experience gained in their implementation," Identity Malta said. But the agency is so far resisting freedom of information requests calling it to disclose the identities of the citizens who are acquiring their passports, or data as to which are the leading agencies securing the most successful applications for citizenship. Applicants for a Maltese pass- port under the IIP should have at least a 12-month residency status in Malta although this has never been understood as implying physical presence on the island. The other requirements are the purchase (minimum €350,000) or lease (minimum €16,000 per an- num) of property; a contribution of €650,000 per main applicant, and the purchase of Malta Government Bonds or locally listed securities and equities amounting to not less than €150,000. 0 566 1,800 Malta's IIP scheme is capped to 1,800 main applicants Passport sales net over €277 million in one year MATTHEW VELLA A total of €194 million was distrib- uted from Malta's sale of passports to the country's national posterity fund, in the 12 months between July 2016 and June 2017. A further €83.3 million were passed directly into the consoli- dated fund, which directly funds government spending. The figures were published as part of the fourth annual report by the regulator of the Individual In- vestment Programme, the sale of Maltese citizenship to the global rich. The passports are sold for €650,000 to main applicants, who must also spend some €350,000 in property and a further €150,000 in financial instruments. The year's "takings" also gener- ated revenues of €16.4 million for Identity Malta, the agency that runs the IIP, and €13.2 million for Henley & Partners, the so called 'concessionaire' that designed the programme in the first place and takes a 4% cut on all successful IIP applications. That means that since the launch of the IIP up until June 2017, a to- tal of €249 million passed into the National Development and Social Fund, while just over €106 million was passed into the consolidated fund. Henley pocketed €19 million in revenues since the programme was introduced in early 2014. A further €110 million is still awaiting distribution and is held in a suspense account. Since 2013, there have been 566 successful main applicants. Con- sidering that the number of suc- cessful main applicants, excluding dependents, cannot exceed 1,800 for the whole duration of the IIP, the figure constitutes 31.4% of the indicated target. As in previous years, the largest number of main applicants origi- nated from Europe, followed by Asia and the Middle East. The 386 applications received over 2016-2017 included a total of 1,409 persons. Apart from the 386 main applicants there were 294 spouses, 487 minor dependants and 242 adult dependants, mean- ing that each application contained an average of three dependants. IIP applicants must also acquire a property having a minimum value of €350,000 or take one on lease for a minimum annual rent of €16,000. Similar to the 2015-2016 period, the vast majority of property, 88%, was leased whereas the remaining 12% was purchased – an increase of 8 percentage points. The most popular locality for purchased properties was St Ju- lian's, closely followed by Sliema. This region of localities, together with Swieqi, held 78% of properties acquired by IIP applicants. Property leasing was spread over 30 different localities. Sliema saw an overwhelming 38% of properties being leased. 4% of the properties were leased in Gozo. The value of the 46 purchased properties amounted to €35.2 mil- lion, an average of €767,000 per property. Globally the value of all purchased property (82) totals €71 million. In the case of leased property the rental value for the duration of the five-year contract is projected to be €33.6 million, or €99,000 per con- tract. Globally all 484 leased prop- erties would add up to €51 mil- lion, averaging €105,642 per leased property. The amount invested in stocks between 2016-2017 totalled €58.3 million. The global figure for all IIP applicants now amounts to €85.8 million. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Citizenship experts Henley have pocketed €19 million from cut on each Maltese passport sold since start of IIP in 2014 Passport kings: Henley supremoes Eric Major (left) with Christian Kalin (right) and Prime Minister Joseph Muscat (centre)