The request for a warrant of prohibitory injunction, as filed by a large number of tourist operators, was rejected today by the First Hall of the Civil Court because it did not satisfy all the criteria necessary for a warrant.

On 30 May a number of tourism operators filed a request for a warrant of prohibitory injunction against the government related to the new Eco-Contribution Tax which obliges operators to pay €0.50 per night per tourist over 18, with a maximum of €5.

The application was filed by the Federation of English Language Teaching of Malta (FELTOM), the Federation Association of Travel and Tourism Agents (FATTA), the Professional Diving Schools Association (PDSA), the Malta Association of Hotel Executives (MAHE), Joseph Attard, Divesystems WS Limited, Toro Company Limited and the Malta Chamber of Commerce.

The defendants were the Environment Minister Dr Jose Herrera, the Finance Minister Prof Edward Scicluna, and the Tourism Minister Dr Edward Zammit Lewis.

The court presided by Mr Justice Joseph Zammit McKeon found that the complainants at prima facie have no right to stop the government from implementing the Eco-Tax, which is the second prerequisite for filing such a warrant. As such, since the second condition was not satisfied, the case stopped were it was and the third and fourth conditions weren’t considered.

The complainants’ main reasoning behind the warrant was that it was sprung on them without any consultation whatsoever and without a necessary two-month moratorium to give the operators a chance to adapt their administrative processes to the tax. The suddenness of the tax led the complainants to conclude that they will be incurring the brunt of the tax themselves due to not having enough time to give appropriate notice to the tourists who booked months ago, many with a package deal.