CVA Technology Co. Ltd. would like to submit the following points of fact in reply to Mark Theuma’s letter titled CVA Great Idea, Greater Rip Off (TMID, 30 April)

As stated in the client’s letter, the vehicle in question had a single billable CVA event within the CVA zone which took place in December 2008 and in this particular case Mr Theuma received a bill amounting to e0.82 for access and parking within the Valletta CVA zone, in March 2009. The reason why Mr Theuma received the respective CVA bill three months after the CVA event is due to the fact that since in such case the CVA billable events for the months of December 08 and January 09 inclusive did not exceed e11.65, then, in accordance with the established CVA procedures, the related CVA bill will have to be issued every three months as from the date that such a CVA event took place. Such information is available both on the CVA’s website www.cva.gov.mt and also from our Customer Call Centre help desk. This is done to avoid sending out monthly bills to clients with small amounts.

Upon sending the first CVA Bill to our clients, CVA Technology Company Ltd also attaches an R1 Registration Form which basically assigns the respective Client User Number and related password to offer users the possibility to log into the CVA website with the facility to view their bills online, view the related sighting images which occurred within the CVA zone and to allow them to effect payments online. Besides the online payment facility, clients can effect their payments by cheque, or by sending the remittance advice indicating their credit/debit card details or by making settlement in cash at our CVA offices in Marsa or at the Valletta local council. Moreover, as explained in both the Registration Form and the CVA statement, clients may benefit from a 10 per cent prepayment discount if they opt to settle their CVA bill prior to it being issued or if they register for the Direct Debit scheme.

The CVA bills bearing the issue date of 1 March (just as in the case of Mr Theuma) were all delivered to the public through mail by not later than the 12 March; in fact the respective due date set for such CVA bills was 13 April thus allowing the full 30 days of settlement from the date of delivery of such bills. In this case, the client opted to send a cheque to CVA Technology Co Ltd which arrived on 27 April and since CVA Technology Co Ltd adopts a same day payment processing procedure it was inputted in the system on that same day when it was received. Therefore two weeks had passed from the bill due date and the date when the cheque was received by CVA Technology Co Ltd.

Since the payment was received after the established due date of 13 April a CVA late payment fee amounting to e5.82 was subsequently issued to the client. Such late payment fee of e5.82 results from the Third Schedule of the Vehicle Access Zones (Control) Regulations 2007 (Subsidiary Legislation 65.31) whereby if a CVA bill is not settled within the respective due date, a minimum late payment fee of e5.82 is incurred. The details of these late payment fees are also found in our CVA website and most importantly, at the back of the CVA statement which is mailed to all our clients.

Brian J Gatt

CVA Technology Company Ltd