In order to promote its objective of improving the quality of
Cyprus shipping, the Merchant Shipping (Fees and Taxing Provisions)
Law of 2010, Law 44(I)/2010 ("the Tonnage Tax Law")
imposes a surcharge on the tonnage tax payable in respect of
qualifying vessels registered in countries which appear in the Grey
List or the Black List of the Paris MOU. Sections 17(2), 27(2) and
40(2) of the Tonnage Tax Law respectively provide for a surcharge,
payable by owners, charterers or managers, of 30 per cent for ships
registered in countries appearing in the Grey List and 60 per cent
for ships registered in countries appearing in the Black
List.
On the basis of the annual report of the Paris MOU for the year
2013, the Department of Merchant Shipping has determined that the
flags listed below are included in the relevant Grey or Black List
for the purposes of calculating tonnage tax for 2014.
Section 34(4) of the Tonnage Tax Law provides that ships under management flying a flag which appears in the Black List of the Paris MOU will qualify for the tonnage tax system only if the technical and crew management of every such ship is entirely performed from the territory of an EU Member State. In the event of breach of this requirement section 54 of the Law empowers the Department of Merchant Shipping to impose sanctions including administrative fines and exclusion from the tonnage tax system.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
We operate a free-to-view policy, asking only that you register in order to read all of our content. Please login or register to view the rest of this article.