The 28 June registration deadline relating to the Packaging Waste Regulation has been put off by three months with the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise insisting that proper enforcement was of paramount importance.

Agreement on the postponement came at a high-level meeting on Monday evening, between the chamber and Rural Affairs and Environment Minister George Pullicino.

At the meeting, chamber president Victor A. Galea said that although the chamber agreed in principle with legislation enforcing environmental responsibility, the chamber would keep on insisting that the added responsibilities and the costs imposed, together with the lack of enforcement, continued to exacerbate the existing scenario of unfair competition between law-abiding companies and illicit traders.

“Whereas today there already are obligations with respect to the payment of an eco-contribution, the business community is now being requested to register with the Malta Environment and Planning Authority by 28 June and submit data on packaging waste placed on the market from 2006. Alternatively they may sign up to a waste collection scheme in order to satisfy their obligations by recovering and recycling their packaging,” he said.

Mr Galea added this would entail more operational costs for those businesses complying with all their administrative, environmental and fiscal obligations at high costs while illicit traders were continuously evading their responsibilities by not paying their fiscal dues, without the government having a sound enforcement system in place.

The minister said that he would accede to the chamber’s request to postpone the registration deadline by three months and that in the meantime, the business sector needed to get together and come up with a viable solution to ensure that everyone adhered to their environmental responsibilities.