Malta Business Registry issues almost €60 million in penalties since 2019, collects less than half

The Malta Business Registry (MBR) has issued a total of €58,930,637.30 in penalties since January 2019, an average of €1.12 million per month.

The data was made available by Economy Minister Silvio Schembri on Wednesday (yesterday), in response to a parliamentary question submitted by Opposition MP Jerome Caruana Cilia.

It revealed that less than half the value of penalties issued have been collected within the reporting period. A total of €23,589,881.53 in penalties have been collected by the MBR since January 2019, an average of €445,092 per month.

Companies can receive penalties from the MBR for a number of reasons, such as when they they submit their annual returns late.

2022 was the year with the largest sum total of fines issued, registering a total of €16.3 million. March of that year registered a record total of €2,091,019.87 in penalties, the largest amount issued in a single month within the reporting period.

There has been a clear upward trend in the sum total of penalties issued by the MBR since 2019, having increased by 73 per cent by 2022.

Meanwhile, the sum total value of penalties collected trails significantly below the sum total value of those issued.

Only 40 per cent of the value of penalties issued since 2019 have been collected by the MBR. The year with the largest sum total of penalties collected was 2021, with a total of 6.77 million. Despite a higher value of penalties issued in 2022, there was a marginal decline in collection.

The month with the largest sum total penalties collected was October 2022, which registered a total of €722,805.36.