Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/492208
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 8 APRIL 2015 7 MATTHEW AGIUS A lawyer representing 10 pitkala (vegetable market middlemen) has blasted the logic behind a legal notice that requires them to give a bank guarantee of 10% of their total annual income. According to an amendment to the Marketing of Agricultural Produce Regulations, enacted last January by legal notice 472 of 2014, "Every pitkal who applies for the re- newal of a licence after the 31st day of December of 2014 shall provide a bank guarantee, equivalent to 10% of his previous year's turnover from the sales of agricultural produce." In the past, the farmer would leave his produce with his pitkal, who would then find the highest price for it. Pitkala would never handle money – a voucher system was in place whereby the buyer would deposit the money at APS, which would then distribute 8% to the pitkala and the rest to the farm- ers. However this all changed last No- vember, when a meeting at the min- istry was called, in which it was an- nounced that the pitkala were going to be responsible for collecting the money instead of APS bank. They were warned that if they failed to provide the bank guarantee, their permit would not be renewed. Up till 2012, APS bank had acted as a guarantor in cases where a pitkal would fail to deposit the in- come, to protect the farmer. Now that the agreement has not been re- newed, the government argued that it needed a bank guarantee. But the pitkala's lawyer, Edward Gatt, told the court yesterday that whoever drafted the law did not un- derstand the role of the pitkal. "The function of a pitkal is to synchronise the sale between the farmer and the hawker/seller," said the lawyer. "The law speaks of 10% recovered from the sale made by the pitkal. This is already a f law, be- cause the pitkal does not sell. The sale happens between the farmer and the buyer, who is introduced to him by the pitkal." Gatt explained that the turnover of the pitkal is not the turnover of the farmer. The 10% guarantee should have been on the 8% com- mission they earn from acting as a middleman, not on the total turn- over. "Why should pitkala expose them- selves to such risk when they do not even sell?" the lawyer argued. Gatt also pointed out that the bank guarantee on uncollected monies is provided to the Direc- tor of Agriculture, with whom the farmer has no dealings. Lawyer Mario Spiteri from the Department of Agriculture, how- ever, argued that before this system came into force, the bank was ex- posed to risk if the pitkal who col- lected the money did not deposit it. "The amounts that should have been deposited would sometimes reach €80,000..., €100,000..., the amounts would be substantial." He said the 10% figure was proposed because more often than not, "a month or two would be skipped" and a figure would have to be de- cided on because "the government would be exposed to risk". Lawyer Abigail Caruana from the Attorney General's office asked Spi- teri what consultations were made with the pitkala. "A meeting was held last Novem- ber, and nobody objected..." Spiteri began, but was cut short by loud murmurs of dissent from the pitka- la packing the courtroom, requir- ing the judge to bring the court- room to order. Spiteri said that many "one-to- one" meetings with the pitkala "took place because some did not want to meet in front of others". "One must look at the context of what is actually happening," said the lawyer. "The definition of sale in the law under which the legal no- tice was published includes 'every transfer of objects', not just for money. The definition of a pitkal under the same law is a person who sells. This was only contested now that there is the issue of the guar- antee. True, the pitkal was not sup- posed to deposit money, but the problem was that it was not always the case in practice." Gatt argued that the old system had worked for generations. If the warrant is not granted, he warned, farmers will be unprotected. "I do not recall ever having a warrant with both requisites so completely satisfied" said the lawyer. Mr Justice Joseph R. Micallef pointed out to Gatt that the injunc- tion essentially wanted to prevent the law from being effective. Gatt agreed, but added that it was a nec- essary measure to keep the pitkala in business while the case is in court, because "if it is taken up to appeal stage, it could take years". The judge will deliver a decree in chambers. News ELECTORAL COMMISSION NATIONAL REFERENDUM AND LOCAL COUNCIL ELECTIONS - 2015 Notice for those who have not yet collected their Referendum and/or Local Council Voting Document. Voting Documents may be collected by the voter PERSONALLY upon presentation of his/her Identity or Residence Card. Place VOTE COUNTING COMPLEX, NAXXAR (Ex-Trade Fair Grounds) Days and Hours Monday 6th, Tuesday 7th and Wednesday 8th April, from 8:00am to 2:00pm and from 3:00pm to 9:00pm. Last day, Thursday 9th April, from 8:00am to 2:00pm and 3:00pm to midnight. www.electoral.gov.mt Inmate files claim for valuables allegedly stolen from prison MAT THEW AGIUS A Nigerian prisoner who had filed a judicial protest last year, claiming that valuables belong- ing to him were stolen from prison, has formally requested damages from the director of the Corradino Correctional Fa- cilit y. Among the valuables claimed stolen were a pair of sunglass- es, a pendant, a belt, two rings, three earrings and a bottle of perfume. Prison official David Scerri yesterday testified in the Joseph Feilazoo's claim before the Small Claims Tribunal. The tribunal, chaired by law yer Yana Micallef Stafrace, was told that he had inspected Feilazoo's luggage in the prison store room and had found it to be empt y. Answering a question by Feila- zoo's counsel, Larry Formosa, Scerri explained that, when for- eigners are incarcerated, their luggage is kept in the store room together with glass objects, or potentially dangerous or fragile objects. He confirmed that jew- ellery, however, was not stored with the luggage, but was kept separately in the record office. Feilazoo, currently serving a 12-year sentence for drug traf- ficking, had filed a judicial pro- test claiming that his belong- ings were taken from him on his admission to the facilit y but he was not given a receipt. He was later told that some items had gone missing. He was only al- lowed to file a police report af- ter several months of requests to the prison director. He is also claiming that he was forced to undergo a full-body search and accused of being a ringleader after he complained about prison food in Decem- ber 2013. He was subsequently transferred to another division at the CCF. This is not the first time that Feilazoo has complained of ill treatment at the CCF, hav- ing participated in two hunger strikes together with other non- Maltese inmates in June and July 2013, protesting against prison conditions. Legislator 'did not understand the role of pitkala', court told Download the MaltaToday App now Price reductions on 14 medicines MARTINA BORG CIVIL affairs minster Helena Dalli announced yesterday that 14 medi- cines would see a price cut of between 5% and 26%. "These reductions were all possible thanks to the work of the intelligence unit in the Medicines Authority, which not only brought about price reductions but even increased the supply and choice of medicines," she said. Dalli also said that the authority had seen a record number of applications for the registration of medicines in Malta in 2014, with a total of 650 ap- plications. This brought the number of registered medicines up to 4,839 in the country. "Thanks to added dialogue with the EU medicines authority, we have managed to strengthen parallel dis- tribution and EU-registered products, which will ensure cheaper products for consumers," she said. Dalli also explained that Malta is now among the top five EU countries for centralised procedures, a process in which medications authorised in Malta are recognised throughout the EU. "All the revenue generated from this process will go into aiding and strengthening the pharmaceutical and medical industry to become more ef- ficient and competitive," Dalli added. Prof Anthony Serracino Inglott, chairman of the Medicines Authority, explained that Malta had also engaged in increasing numbers of third-coun- try inspections and that following the developments, Malta was looking for- ward to introducing an even higher level of education and training. "To that end students and pharma- cists are being encouraged to pursue doctorates through offers of trainee- ships with the authority itself," Prof. Serracino Inglott said. Serracino Inglott stressed that in- vesting in training was a constant process and that the aim of the au- thority was to make Malta an interna- tionally recognised centre for medi- cine registration and expertise.