Estonia, Financial Services, Legislation, Taxation, Transport

The government sent to the Riigikogu the law of amendments to the seafaring safety law a day before the draft 2013 state budget was handed over to the parliament. The state hopes to collect 18-20 million euros of water tax next year, which is two times more than is collected with the current lighthouses and navigation fees calculation scheme.

The cause for changing the lighthouses and navigation fees into a common water fee and change the scheme of calculating the fee is that the lighthouses and navigation fees income doesn't cover expenditures made for safety of waterways, the ministry claims. Around 10 million euros of the fees are collected a year. Last year, the expenditure on maintenance of waterways and icebreaking work reached 18 million euros a year. The other reason the ministry cites is the need to make the system of calculating the taxes similar to neighbouring states Finland, Sweden and Latvia to stay in competition. The explanatory note to the draft law states that the new scheme may result in a 2-6 time increase of fees for ships. The negative effects of that will be eased by facilitating repeat visits of ships.

The law is handled by the Riigikogu economy committee. If it is approved by the parliament, the new water fees of ships will come in force on January 1, 2013.