Small and medium enterprises and sole traders were yesterday offered a new set of financial incentives whereby they will be given a tax credit of up to €12,000 if they upgrade their IT systems to introduce in e-commerce.

Investment, Industry and Information Technology Minister Austin Gatt yesterday announced that SMEs and sole traders will benefit from a tax credit of €12,000/Lm78,714 if they invest in a system of e-commerce.

Dr Gatt pointed out that Malta is structurally very advanced and actually has the third highest (89 per cent) penetration rate of business internet connectivity in SMEs after Finland (91 per cent), and Spain (90 per cent).

However, he added, even though Maltese businesses are prepared, they are not using it to sell their products in Malta and abroad.

“This is a new market and Malta is not at a disadvantage. Selling methods change continually; in fact many companies are solely web-based,” said Dr Gatt.

The minister pointed out that e-commerce automatically generates secondary businesses.

GRTU director general Vince Farrugia said that these incentives are very important to the e-commerce sector and added that he was always in favour of different types of retailing.

“A modern economy needs different tools to survive and e-commerce is a good way of reducing the distance between the retailer and the consumer as Malta still falls behind in this sector,” he said.

He expressed his satisfaction at the fiscal incentives offered by the government and said that now retailers have the tools to move forward.

He said that it is a great step forward and added that it is a very friendly tax credit.