Updated | MEPA sends out 3,500 bills for printing costs to applicants

Adds MEPA reaction at 11:55am

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority has issued 3,500 letters to applicants demanding that they pay anything between €100 to €450 in printing costs, on pain of suspension of their applications.

The letters have now been withdrawn, Labour MP Roderick Galdes, who is a MEPA board member as well as employee of the authority, said in a press conference. shows lack of sensitivity towards property market – MDA

The Malta Developers Association (MDA) noted MEPA's decision to withdraw the bills issued, saying these were issued without the applicants receiving information on how MEPA decided on the valuation of these expenses.

The MDA also questioned whether the charges "in fact reflected the actual expenses of paper and printing that were meant to be the reason for issuing these bills."

The association hit out at MEPA's, saying the authority is "showing that it is totally insensitive and failing to understand the circumstances in which the property industry in Malta finds itself today."

Galdes said the letters were illegal because they were not covered by a legal notice. “Last night I was informed the letters would be withdrawn this morning, with the excuse that this was an administrative error.”

Galdes poured doubt over whether the letters had genuinely been sent out in an administrative error. “These letters are unacceptable,” Galdes said.

According to the letter, MEPA would have suspended the provision of any services in relation to applicants’ cases should they fail to settle printing costs related to these services.

Galdes also said MEPA should refund the fees paid by some applicants who had settled the bill, if this was truly an administrative error. “I call on both government and MEPA to shoulder the responsibility to what amounts to an illegality.”

In a reaction, MEPA said the circular was intended to provide a clarification on the requests for payment of printing costs. The request had been withdrawn and affected applicants will be receiving a letter to this effect in the coming days. "The apportionment of the printing costs incurred by the Authority in relation to the service being provided to the applicants is still on going. The applicants who have already paid those fees will be receiving a refund," MEPA said.

The Labour MP also said a new system to allow MEPA to receive its government subvention – by ‘billing’ government for the services the authority provides – was still a subsidy from government to cover the €8-12 million MEPA costs as a public authority.

MEPA will bill government for its services to keep receiving €7 million in taxes, despite higher development fees it is now charging to developers and domestic clients. Past declarations by government that the new fees will ensure the authority fully finances itself were put paid by a decision to have MEPA “bill” the government for its services: a roundabout way to receive a subvention from the state.

In the budget speech for 2010, finance minister Tonio Fenech announced that “a new tariff system will come in place and this will mean that the authority will no longer receive a subvention.”

And last January, MEPA chairman Austin Walker told MaltaToday in an interview that the new tariff regime was necessary “to eliminate the €6 million paid by the taxpayer to finance MEPA… we had no choice but to increase the tariffs.”