Welsh firm capitalises on levy removals

With the full relaxation of import levies on a number of products as of the first of the year, consumers are expected to benefit from not only a drop in prices of imported goods, but also from a wider range of products entering the market as small and large foreign manufacturers alike begin to identify Malta as a more feasible market place for their goods.

One small, yet salient, example has been provided by Welsh squash producer Tovali, which just recently secured its first export deal outside the UK – to Malta.

The small firm, which employs just ten workers, recently sent a consignment of 15,000 bottles to Malta, after levies were dropped on fruit juices, soft drinks and a number of other goods.

On 1 January the remaining levies, amounting to 50 per cent of the original amount, have been removed on all the industrial products on which levies were still being applied.

Furthermore, an additional 10 per cent reduction in the levy on a number of agro-food products has also been introduced. These include such staple items as flour, cooking oil and margarine, mayonnaise, salad cream, pasta, biscuits, ice-cream and beer. The list primarily covers processed food products not linked to local agricultural production.

Import levies have also been waived on polished and unpolished cement tiles and on marble and granite tiles – which had previously respectively stood at Lm2, Lm2.50, Lm5 and Lm5.

Import levies on products listed in the schedule covered by the legal notice, was decreased, on average, by ten per cent on 1 September 2002, by another ten per cent on 1 January 2003 and will be lowered by a further ten per cent on 1 July 2003.

The amount represents a cumulative reduction of thirty per cent in relevant import levy by 1 July 2003, with the remaining seventy per cent of the current levy, due to be completely removed upon Malta’s proposed EU accession scheduled for 1 May 2004.