Voluntary support from the ship-owners sector is extended to four years
750 million euro contribution to the economy
More than 420 million euro will be contributed to the Greek State funds in the next four years by the shipping industry as a voluntary benefit in addressing the economic crisis.
With an amendment that was introduced to the Parliament yesterday, a solution was given to the problem that had been caused by the unconstitutional, as was described, compulsory taxation of the shipping industry for three years, raised with the Article 14 of Law 4223/2013 by the former Minister for Finance, Yiannis Stournaras, and was never implemented.
With a new amendment that was introduced to the Parliament, the regulation proposed by Stournaras is to be repealed and replaced by the ratification of a memorandum and its accompanying supplementary act, which was signed between the Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, and the President of the Union of Greek Shipowners (UGS), Theodoros Veniamis, who represents 478 Greek owned shipping companies in total.
According to the list of companies that comes with the amendment, all of the big names of the Greek shipping industry are taking part in this memorandum, as well as a few more that were missing from the initial agreement between Samaras and Veniamis.
With this memorandum that was signed on the 18th of July 2013 and the supplementary act that was signed on the 31st of July 2014, the context based on which for four years, from 2014 to 2017, a voluntary benefit shall be paid on behalf of the Greek ship owners in addition to the existing tax obligations arising from the taxation of ships flying the Greek or any foreign flag was created.
The amount of the voluntary benefit had been calculated since July 2013 to 140 million euro per year for three years. The memorandum was amended and payment of the amount of 105 million per year for four years was agreed with the supplementary act, so that the total payable amount shall reach 420 million euro. Adding to that the compulsory tonnage tax that concerns ships flying Greek or foreign flags and is calculated based on the existing capacity of the fleet at 80 million per year, it is estimated that in four years the Greek shipping industry will have paid almost 750 million euro to the Greek State funds.
The first installment of 105 million euro will be paid by the end of October of the current year by the shipping companies, while the last installment will be paid in February 2017, so as to be taken into account for the year 2016. As mentioned in the causative report, the memorandum was promoted within the context of respect for the special institutional regulatory regime of Law 27/1975 as currently in force, the special legislative regime of Article 13 of Legislative Decree 2687/1953 and the instruments of approval that are issued based on it, as well as the common relevant legislation in all other respects.
In the light of paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 107 of the Greek Constitution. The causative report mentions the reason of why the previous regulation by Stournaras was deemed necessary. So, according to observations made by the competent Directorate of Scientific Studies of the Parliament, under the consideration that the “benefit (editor’s note: of the regulation proposed by Stournaras) is not imposed in return for any specific services provided by the State to its bearers, the imposed benefit constitutes a tax that needs to be examined in the light of the regulations of Article 107 (1) of the Constitution, to the extent that it also applies to Greek ships flying a first class flag of Law 27/75 and in connection with the Hellenic Council of State Decision 1685/2013 (Plenary session on the issue of special contribution of Article 18 of Law 3758/2009), the removal of the provision and the ratification of the memorandum and its supplementary act is suggested, in order to avoid confusion in relation to this contribution’s voluntary and temporary nature.
Source – NAFTEMPORIKI