Amid COVID-19 pandemic, Merchant Shipping Directorate of Malta has forced supporting measures in order to protect and keep providing an uninterrupted service to the Maltese shipping community. In fact, the country’s Directorate informed that the tax measures have been implemented from 1st of April.
The Directorate is fully aware that the shipping industry has been severely impacted by COVID-19 and is currently facing serious cash flow issues.
… as Merchant Shipping Directorate of Malta noted.
Specifically, in an effort to enhance shipping companies, owners, operators and managers of Maltese merchant ships and activate them to deal with the coronavirus crisis, Malta decided to defer the due payment date of the relevant Registration Fees and the Annual Tonnage Tax of merchant ships (Merchant Shipping Act – First Schedule), of which the anniversary date falls on or after 1 April 2020, by a period of three months from the anniversary.
In light of the situation, requests to issue renewal Certificates of Registry are still to be made to the Registrar as provided in article 19(4) of the Merchant Shipping Act, accompanied by a request for the deferral of payment of the relevant registration fees and annual tonnage tax, where applicable.
Concluding, Malta Ship Registry keeps monitoring the international situation and will further adapt new and updated measures in related to the concerns of shipowners and other stakeholders of the shipping industry.
