From MaltaMedia.com
Car registration on imported cars to be revised
By MaltaMedia News
Jul 3, 2008 - 11:04:41 AM
In a letter to the Chairman of the Malta Transport Authority, Transport Minister Austin Gatt said that an independent audit by a private company confirms his “concerns about the unsatisfactory quality of procedures in the administration of vehicle licensing and registration and the need to implement radical reforms in this area.”
Gatt’s letter goes on to direct the Authority to carry out a series of amendments to its policies and procedures.
The minister said that he wants to implement a reform that will lead to a more transparent procedure and which is easy and efficient to administer and, moreover, which balances responsibilities so as not to concentrate responsibilities.
Among Gatt’s list of directions he said, “A resident in Malta would not be given a temporary permit to import a foreign registered vehicle. Instead, any resident should be obliged to register the vehicle (and pay the relative registration tax), within seven days of importation. I see no reason for the provision of any exception to this rule (including second hand car importers).”
Anyone who is not a resident of Malta will be allowed to import a foreign registered vehicle and keep it for six months, after which he/she would be obliged to register the vehicle and pay registration tax. If, in the meantime, this person produces a contract of employment showing that he/she is employed in Malta for a further period of six months at most, the ADT can extend the period of non-registration of the vehicle for a further six months. After those six months, the car will have to be registered.
As for reform within the Authority’s operations, Gatt is demanding that the Authority should draw up and issue detailed work-flows to clearly explain how applications should be treated internally. This code of practice is to take in consideration both the applicant and clients of the Authority as well as the back office procedures.
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