Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/680790
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 18 MAY 2016 11 Business Today www.creditinfo.com.mt info@creditinfo.com.mt Tel: 2131 2344 Your Local Partner for Credit Risk Management Solutions Supporting you all the way Increase in French exports to Malta Malta Chamber calls for temporary tourism tax exemption While agreeing with the proposed tourism tax "in principle," the Malta Chamber of Commerce and a number of bodies involved in the tourism industry expressed their opposition to the way it is imple- mented. The Malta Chamber made it clear that for future reference, whenever government intended to introduce a new tax, it would do well to consult with all the elements in the industry affected, in order to mitigate any damage this would potentially result in. Malta Chamber president Anton Borg said the way the proposed bed-tax and the fund to improve the tourism product is being implemented "would bring about unnecessary burdens on the industry, and would certainly leave a bad taste with patrons, damaging Malta's touristic product." Borg said package holiday tourists make up 44% of tourist arrivals in Malta and the tourism operators whose market is mainly package holiday tourists, will be faced with situations where their fully paid up clients will be asked to pay the new tax by the accommodation provider, who is legally responsible to collect it. "These tourists, who would have booked on the understanding that all their costs are covered, will not take lightly to an added expense, however small, and will in most instances refuse to pay. In such situations, rather than risk upsetting their clients and the package travel operators who booked them, the local tourism providers will end up absorbing the tax themselves." He said that in order to avoid this, government should exempt accommodation providers from collecting the tax from tourists who would have booked comprehensive package holidays before the 1 May 2016. All other tourists would be expected to pay the eco- contribution from the 1 June. This exemption would be in place only for a few months and would replace the 15% concession for any uncollected contributions. Borg also said that host family accommodations today account for around 11.7% of total tourist bed nights and an estimated 9.8% of total tourist expenditure. The proposed tax-collection process will prove to be excessively burdensome for these families and will continue discouraging these families from offering their services in the future. For this purpose, the President called for host family accommodations to be exempted from this tax. In view of the hasty implementation of the tax, Borg also said that hotel management staff should not be held responsible or liable for any uncollected eco contributions in situations where un- cooperative tourists refuse to pay. Imports from France increased by 16% between 2014 and 2015 to reach €358.7 million. Express Trailers has consolidated its business collaboration with French transport and logistics company Dimotrans who services Express Trailers across France with operations through Paris, Lyon and now Lille. With over 30 years' experience the Dimotrans Group has been developing effective, flexible and responsive offers in multimodal road, air and maritime transport, in customs and in B to B and B to C logistics, to manage entire supply chains. "We have been experiencing an increase in trade between Malta and France and this increased demand for our service has led us to add a new depot in Lille to be able to service our customers doing business with the region," David Fleri Soler, Head of Sales and Business Development at Express Trailers said. France remains one of the main trading partners of Malta. From the statistics of the French customs and the Ministry of Economy, French exports to Malta increased 16% between 2014 and 2015 (€358.7 million) and French imports from Malta increased by 2% (€172.8 million). The most dynamic sectors in both countries' bilateral trade are boats, ICT and electronic goods as well as optical instruments, pharmaceutical products and food and beverage. Express Trailers recently supported a social networking event organised by the Maltese French Chamber of Commerce which was presided by HE Mme Beatrice Le Fraper du Hellen, French Ambassador to Malta. "Express Trailers has always worked closely with local and international companies doing business to and from France and we have always been very close to their requirements and responsive to their demands. We are set up in a way that we can offer a total logistics solution and therefore, we can easily adapt to how the client's requirements evolve. A case in point is this growing need for better connections through Lille and this is what spurred Express Trailers to establish a new depot in this region," David Fleri Soler added. Express Trailers has been operating to and for France since 1978 with a scheduled weekly service and departures and arrivals from Paris and Lyon offering groupage services and part loads, both for import and export as well as transport of dry, chilled or frozen food products and specialized cargo such as motor vehicles, pharmaceuticals and works of art. More recently, Express Trailers also included France in its online shipping portal www.ShipLowCost.com running weekly from Paris to Malta for the benefit of all online shoppers buying from France and even holiday makers in France having overweight or oversized packages to ship home. Online shopping and in-store purchasing work in the same way. The customer just directs her packages to our regional depot and books the shipping to Malta through her mobile device by logging in www. ShipLowCost.com. "This 40-year experience working with France has earned us a lot of know-how about the French market and this has enabled Express Trailers to be able to apply a low-risk, efficient and complete service to our customers," concluded David Fleri Soler. Airport passenger traffi c grows by 12% During the fi rst four months of year, the national airport's performance has exceeded expectations with passenger traffi c achieving overall growth of 12% when compared to the same period of the previous year This improved performance was a direct result of an 8.8% increase in seat capacity as aircraft movements reached a total of 5.7% more than last year. Even considering this overall increase in seat capacity, the number of seats being occupied also registered a 3% improvement during this period, reaching an overall average of 78.8%. This increase in passengers and in movement has rendered over €11 million in turnover, an increase of 5.1% compared to the first quarter 2015. The profit increased by 7.6% reaching almost €1, 500, 000. The summer schedule kicked of on the right foot with April registering a growth of 5.7% as MIA welcome three new carriers; Volotea operating from Catania, Czech Airlines from Prague and Iberia Express from Madrid. Ryanair also added a number of routes including two new destinations, namely Poznan in Poland and Baden-Baden in Germany. As from July, Air Malta will also be introducing a bi-weekly flight to Palermo, as well Aegean and Finnair increasing the frequency of their flights to Athens and Helsinki respectively. What is more, connections to Eastern Europe will continue to improve as Wizz Air and Turkish Airlines will increase seat capacity to this region. This growth may however be partially offset because of a number of other airlines reducing routes or decreasing seat capacity. Nevertheless, MIA is optimistic that the summer season will be closed off with an overall positive result.