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Karl Schembri
Gozo Channel has been asked by the VAT Department to start charging 18 per cent VAT on the car and drivers’ fare, MaltaToday has learned.
If implemented, and unless the new charges are absorbed by the company, the new VAT rate could mean an increase of Lm1.12 on the current Lm6.25 “car and driver” ticket price.
The costs are expected to go up even further in June next year as the company had already planned to raise the car and driver fare to Lm6.50 and then to Lm6.75 before the VAT Department requested the company to start charging taxes.
Contacted yesterday, Gozo Channel Chairman Maurice Zarb Adami confirmed the company was asked by the VAT Department about a month ago to start charging VAT on car tickets.
“We’re looking into it,” Zarb Adami said. “I’m awaiting legal advice because we’ve never paid VAT so far, so we have to check whether we are actually obliged to pay.”
Finance Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech said discussions between the VAT Department and Gozo Channel were still ongoing.
“It would be premature for me to speak at this stage,” he said when asked whether imposing VAT would mean a rise in fares.
Figures released by Gozo Channel indicate that almost 800,000 cars and cargo vehicles travelled between Malta and Gozo in the first ten months of 2004.
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