Category: Archive – 2013

GRTU has been
made aware of important developments in relation to EU-Russia trade,
particularly as regards road customs clearances and operations. In the coming
weeks, importers and exporters of freight to Russia may be facing increasing
difficulties when dealing with the Russian customs authorities.

Up until
this point, customs operations for road transport vehicles have been covered by
the TIR convention, an international customs transit system which provides road
hauliers with reduced administrative burdens and guarantees through the use of
the internationally recognised TIR carnets. 
However, the Russian customs authorities are currently implementing
restrictive customs measures which are in breach with the TIR convention. These
measures would de facto mean the end of the TIR system in Russia, and it is
expected that, starting on 1 December 2013, all road transport operators
relying on TIR carnets will no longer be accepted in Russia. 

Even
though, the Supreme Arbitration Court of Russia has rendered a legally-binding
decision making these restrictions illegal, the Russian government does not
seem inclined nor willing to take action. European road hauliers will have to
adapt to an alternative system which is currently still unknown. This will
inevitably increase red-tape and legal uncertainty for European businesses
wishing to import or export freight to the country.

In
practice, these protectionist measures will push European road hauliers to stop
delivering to Russia, thus globally impacting trade flows between the EU and the
Russian Federation.  

EuroCommerce
raised its concerns to the European Commission (DG TRADE) during today's
conference on "Chemical Trade with Russia", co-organized with FECC – European
Association of Chemical Distributors. 

Kindly inform GRTU if you are affected in any way.

GRTU would like
to take the opportunity to thank its members for their participation during the
meetings held with the Authorities concerned regarding the L.N. 244.2013 –
Animal Welfare Act (CAP. 439), Protection of Animals offered in Pet shops
(Minimum Standards) Regulations, 2013. GRTU would also like to remind Pet Shops
owners that the said L.N. will come into force on April 2, 2014.

The GRTU
will be organizing a General Meeting in the coming days with the participation
of the Authorities concerned to discuss further the said L.N.  In the meantime inspectors will be visiting
pet shops as agreed during the said meetings. The aim is to guide pet shops to
help them be in line with the Law. Section 5 
of the said LN will also be discussed after various complaints GRTU
received from pet shop owners.

GRTU
would also like to inform its members that during a meeting held with Hon
Rodrick Galdes, Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries & Animal
Rights,  pet shop owners contribution
towards  L.N. 244/13  has been discussed in detail.

Hon
Galdes has promised his support towards this sector and the GRTU  and 
said that together we will be working towards the betterment of this
sector.

Those
wishing further assistance are welcome to contact Carmen Borg on 21 230459 or
79 232884.

Access to
finance is still among the top concerns of the EU's small and medium sized
enterprises and younger and smaller firms are the most badly affected,
according to the "Access to Finance" survey released today by the
European Commission and European Central Bank.

About one third of the SMEs
surveyed did not manage to get the full financing they had planned for during
2013 and 15% of survey respondents saw access to finance as a significant
problem for their companies. Companies believed that bank financing conditions
worsened during 2013, with respect to interest rates, collateral and required
guarantees.

Full report can be found:
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/finance/files/2013-safe-analytical-report_en.pdf

Green MT, the National Authorised
Packaging Waste Complaince Scheme, has recently organized its yearly Green
Council Awards. The event was held at a leading hotel in St Julians, where
guests were welcomed by Green Mt Directors.

The event was followed by a
keynote speech from the Minister for Sustainable Development, The Environment
and Climate Change, Mr Leo Brincat, who outlined that it was Government's
strategy to make sure that waste management operations that could be handled by
the private sector do not continue to be done by Wasteserv. Although this in
itself requires a change in mentality he explained that he had already written
to GRTU and other Constituted Bodies in this regard and Government was ready to
consider any direct tangible effort by the private sector in relation to
managing waste in Malta.

After the keynote speech,
the Minister and Mr Paul Abela, GRTU President and Director at Green MT,
presented the awards. The categories awarded were as follows:

The Local Council recovering most recyclables from Grey bag and
bring-in-sites per capita, Malta and Gozo. To this effect Malta and Gozo were
evaluated separately. In Malta the Local Council of Mellieha placed first in
this category with a per capita collection of 93 kg. Second placed was Ta`
Xbiex and third place came Mgarr. In Gozo the Local Council of Ghasri placed
first in this category with a per capita collection of 64 kg. Second placed
were Zebbug and third placed were Munxar.

The Local Council recovering most recyclables from Grey bag
recovery only per capita, Malta and Gozo. The Local Council of Ta' Xbiex placed
first in this category, whilst in Gozo this award went to the Local Council of
Nadur.

The Local Council with the best enviromental initiative. This
award went to none other then Marsascala Local Council. Marsascal Local Council
have replaced 66 street benches at the promenade with funds emanating from the
excess tonnage funds recuperated over three years by the Local Council. The
benches were installed between last year and this year and are manufactured
from recyclable materials and were sourced from Greece. The Mayor Mr Mario
Calleja received the award on behalf of the Local Council.

Following the presentations
by the Minister and Mr Paul Abela those present were entertained to a reception
at the same hotel.

Green MT can be contacted on
21496965/6 and currently effects its logistical operation from offices in
Birkirkara.

F'Laqgha
kordjali li l-GRTU kellha mall-Ministru Joe Mizzi ftit tal-gimghat ilu giet
diskussa fid-dettal l-problema ta' heavy vihicles u fejn wiehed jista jevita li
ma tinholoqx kongestjoni fit-toroq waqt l-peak hours.

Il-GRTU
taghti s-support shih sabiex tinstab l-ahjar soluzzjoni u li jkun hemm aktar
efficcjenza fit-toroq. Il-GRTU pero tinsab imhassba hafna l-ghaliex minghajr ma
saret l-ebda konsultazzjoni mall-partijiet kollha kkoncernati nfurmata li
ttiehdu decizzjonijiet f'dan ir-rigward fejn jistghu jolqtu hazin lil diversi
setturi li tirraprezenta l-GRTU fosthom; water bowsers, burdnara, trakkijiet li
jgorru materjal li ghandu x'jaqsam max-xoghol ta' kostruzzjoni,
trakkijiet/vannijiet li jiddistribbwixxu oggetti diversi u  ohrajn.

Fil-laqgha
gie miftiehem li kellu jigi mfassal pjan ghat-toroq mis-Chief Executive  Officer (CEO), Transport Malta li
jissugerixxi fejn heavy vehicles ma jghaddux jew jghaddu u f'liema hinijiet u
anke jsir suggeriment ta' toroq alternattivi ta' min fejn ser jghaddu dawn
il-vetturi sabiex tittaffa l-problema tat-traffiku. L-GRTU wara tamalgama
l-proposti taghha sabiex jintlahaq ftehim kollettiv ghal benficcju
tal-partijiet kollha kkoncernati.

l-GRTU
ma taccettax li f'certu hinijiet dawn l-vetturi jieqfu mill-operat taghhom. Din
id-decizjoni jekk kemm il-darba tittiehed tista tpoggi fil-perikolu l-impjieg
ta' hafna nies li jirraprezentaw diversi setturi.

Il-GRTU
pproponiet li jsiru laqghat mall-Kunsilli Lokali fejn dawn jistghu jigwidaw
f'alternattivi ohra. Il-GRTU talbet l-assistenza tad-Director of Traffic fejn
bi qbil mall-Ministru kellhom jsiru laqghat maghha qabel ma jittiehdu
decizjonijiet li jistghu jkunu ta' detriment ghal min ser jirciviehom.

L-GRTU
titlob li qabel jsiru dawn l-laqghat ma tittiehed l-ebda decizjoni f'dan
ir-rigward.

The Employment Aid Programme –
for Gozo  Scheme is now open and will close on 6th
December 2013.

To apply for
this program, you can either apply on-line or else you can go to the ETC Office
in Victoria to pick up the form and ask for any information you require about
the scheme.  At the ETC Office you can also
find personnel who can help you in the filling of said application forms.

Tax Related Measures – Tax Deduction for Entrepreneurs who Offer Apprenticeship: Placements Entrepreneurs who are
willing to be part of the system will be given a tax deduction of €600 for
every apprenticeship placement (capped at 800 placements).

Tax deduction for Entrepreneurs who offer Work Placements: Government is offering an incentive
to entrepreneurs in the form of a tax deduction of €600 for every work
placement they accept (capped at 400 placements).

Providing Training and/or Employment to Employees who are between 45
and 65 Years of Age: Government will
offer a tax deduction of €5,800 as an incentive to employers to hire persons
within this age group who have been unemployed for the previous three years,
translating into a saving of €2,030 for each hired individual in this category.
The deduction applies for the first two years of employment. On the other hand,
companies will benefit from a tax deduction on their income or corporate tax of
50% of the training (up to a maximum of €400) for training undertaken by a
training provider officially accredited by the Malta Qualifications Council
upon the provision of a VAT receipt.

Reduction in Income Tax: The Government will be reducing the income tax rate for those income
earners who earn between €19,501 and €60,000 from the current 32% to 29%.

Tax Refund on Vehicle Registration: The Government has allocated the sum
of €2.5 million so that, as from next year, all persons who paid this tax will
receive a refund. The process will be carried out over a period of seven years,
and the ex gratia payment will be provided to those persons who registered a
vehicle for personal use between 1st May 2004, and 1st May 2008.

Abolishing the Tax on Auctions: The tax on auctions is going to be abolished.

Tax on Part Time Income: The preferential rate of 15% will increase from a present threshold of €7,000
to €10,000 for those working part-time, and from €7,000 to €12,000 for those
who work part-time as self-employed. For those businesses that employ two
part-time workers, the 15% will still be applicable.                           Reduction
in Income Tax for Unemployed Women who are over 40 years of age: From 2014,
principal breadwinners whose wives are over forty years of age and have been
inactive for more than 5 years but are going to start employment, earning a
tax-exempt wage, will benefit from reductions in income tax. The income
attributable to the wives will not be considered when using the joint tax
computation. Therefore A married couple may apply for the married tax rates
without taxing the wife's income, if:

This benefit is
applicable for a maximum period of 5 years.

Reduction in Registration tax on motor cycles and non-EU imported cars:
The registration tax on motors having
an engine equal to or greater than 250cc will be reduced. The registration tax
on non-EU imported cars is going to be reduced. The vehicles eligible must not
exceed the 150g/km CO2 emission level and must not be older than eight years.

Excise duty: Excise duty has
increased on a number of goods and commodities including they duty on bunkering
fuel (will increase by €0.35 per metric tonne), excise duty on cigarettes and
tobacco products (being increased by 6% and 9.3% respectively) and excise duty
on alcoholic beverages (being increased at rates of between 2.5% and 15%,
depending on the type of product). Excise duty on cement is also being
increased by €10 to €27 per 1000kg. Excise duty on heavy fuel oil, LPG and
methane is being increased by €2 per 1000 kg whereas that on leaded and
unleaded petrol, biodiesel, gasoil and kerosene is being increased by €20 per
1000 litres.

Value Added Tax: The budget announces a reform in the administration of VAT penalties and
interest as well as administrative proceedings with respect to tax in dispute
both for VAT and Income Tax, giving the necessary discretion to our Courts of
Law when applying imprisonment conditions to faulty taxpayers. Changes are
expected where individuals fail to pay VAT or Income Tax balances on time.

Energy Policy

Reduction on energy bills: As from March 2014, household energy bills will decline by 25% while
water bills will decline by 5%.

Solar Water Heaters, Double Glazing and Roof Insulation Schemes: An incentive scheme will be adopted
to help people upgrade their residence to one which is more energy efficient.
This measure emanates from the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan and is in
line with Directive 2012/27/EU. This measure will lead to a reduction in the
domestic energy use which subsequently reduces the amount of CO2 emissions.

Malta Oil and Gas Corporation: The Government will be establishing a Malta Oil and Gas Corporation.
This will be done so as to provide an infrastructural framework for the
development of an Oil and Gas industrial services industry in Malta. This
corporation will be the Government's leading agency in this regard, and will be
responsible for the implementation of the Government's needs and plans for the
purposes of oil and gas exploration.

Output Potential

Employment Aid Programme: This
tranche of Employment Aid Programme (EAP) will provide employment aid that
covers up to half of the wage s to Gozitan employers. The scope of the
initiative is to promote the recruitment of disadvantaged and/or disabled
persons.

Target Sectors

Gaming: It is
Government's intention to endeavour to enhance Malta's role as a hub for
digital gaming activities.

Managed Seed Capital Fund: An application for the European Social Funds (ESF) programming period
2014-2020 will be prepared to set up and co-manage a Managed Seed Capital Fund
to finance Knowledge-Intensive start-ups. The ESF funds requested will amount
to €11 million over a five year period. It is expected that €10 million will be
directly available as start-up grants and will help finance between fifty and
one hundred Knowledge-Intensive start-ups. The rest of the funds will be used
to finance the setting up of the Fund itself. This measure is expected to
encourage the creation of more Knowledge-Intensive start-ups in Malta.

MicroInvest and Jeremie Scheme: Micro enterprises and self-employed will be supported through a 45% tax
credit on eligible expenditure and 65% tax credit if based in Gozo. In
addition, the Jeremie scheme is going to be continued. These measures will
encourage micro enterprises and the self-employed to invest in their business,
increase their workforce, innovate, expand and implement compliance directives
and aiding in its continued growth by reducing their tax amount payable to the
Government. In turn, this would help increase economic activity.

International Individual Investor Programme: The Government is committed to attract foreign
direct investment for Malta to remain competitive in a global economy. The
Citizenship programme will put us on the same level with Canada, Portugal, Belgium
and Singapore in attracting high-quality investors.

Family Business Act: Family Businesses are the backbone of the Maltese economy. Around 70% of
local businesses are family businesses. Furthermore, in total, there are around
31,000 small family businesses that employ more than 38,400 people. However,
only 30% of businesses which complete the successful transition from the first
to the second generation survive for the long-term. Less than 10% of such
family-run businesses make it through to the third generation. To address this
challenge, the Government will enact the Family Business Act which aims to
ensure the continued existence of family businesses by facilitating the
transition from one generation to another.

It is being called the business
killer and it can certainly kill your business if your system gets infected.
The Cryptolocker is perhaps the most harmful piece of Malware (or Ransomware)
that was ever devised.

Infection comes through an email with a harmless looking
attachment.

The email usually looks like a message sent from a Xerox machine
with an attachment of a scanned document but reports are coming in that this is
not the only type of message that is being used as a carrier. Once the user
opens the attachment, nothing seems to happen but in the background the malware
program will start encrypting your files one by one and will continue to do so
until it completes this process on all your disk drives. Your anti-virus reports
an infection and attempts to contain it but the process would have started
anyway. The infection also spreads to drives through which you are connected to
across your business network, such as shared drives on your server. This is
precisely why it is being called "The business killer". It does not only
encrypt the files on your local system, preventing you to use them in the
future, but also shared files often used company-wide on your server. 

The virus encrypts your
files with very strong encryption which cannot be reversed unless you you have
a special key. The creators of the virus hold the key and will not give you the
key unless you pay $300. This is why this virus is being called ransomware.

Any ICT expert worth his
salt would have come across similar threats and the first inclination would be
to remove the virus. There have been several reports in the local papers of
other viruses claiming that they are from the Malta Police force and that
attempt to pose as real ransomware. In this case, this virus is very different.
The virus itself is easy enough to remove, however, the encryption is simply
impossible to reverse without the key. The virus gives you a solution itself.
Pay the virus developers $300 and the encryption will be reversed and you will
have your files back. Of course, your ICT consultant and everyone else will
advise you not to pay these people, after all they are criminals. On the other
hand $300 is not a huge sum to pay to get back your entire company files.
Paying the virus creators does in fact solve the problem and once paid the
virus will decrypt all of them and remove itself.

Is there any other way to
decrypt your files ?

The short answer is a big
no. The virus uses 2048 Bit encryption which means that if you had to set up
your computer system to try every possible combination of keys it would take
6.4 Quadrillion years to try every combination which is 4,294,967,296 x 1.5
million years! So, we can safely assume that breaking the code is impossible.

Furthermore, the virus gives
you 72 hours before the developers delete the key at their end and every time
you try a key and it fails, it reduces the time remaining by half!

How are these people not
getting caught ?

This virus is very cleverly
made. At time of writing most of the anti virus programmes recognise this treat
as a virus, however, by the time they act the payload would have been
delivered. The virus installs a small programme that runs in the background and
performs the encryption mechanism.

It will probably be obvious
to the reader of this article that the way to apprehend these criminals is
through the payment system. In this case, these people are very clever and only
accept payment through Bitcoins (BTC). Bitcoins are a new virtual (Internet)
currency which allow users to remain completely anonymous. In fact Bitcoins
have been used to buy illegal or embarrassing products such as drugs, weapons
or sex services. Bitcoins are in fact not totally untraceable but if the
receiver is careful it can be very difficult if not impossible to track a
particular Bitcoin. Each coin is worth approximately $150.

In Malta this virus presents
a further problem because of the difficulty in buying Bitcoins. In other
European countries you can actually meet people in the park to buy your
Bitcoins. There are sites which list people who have Bitcoins available and who
are willing to sell them but they usually only accept payment in cash and
nothing else. It is also possible to find people who would accept other methods
of payment but usually this would mean that you would have to pay much more
then the usual cost per coin.

What should you do to
protect yourself ?

First of all, make sure you
have adequate backups. In this case backups which are accessible to users
through shared drives will be encrypted as well, so ensure that nobody except
the system and the administrator has access to backup drives. Furthermore,
offsite backups in the cloud which are becoming very popular are practically
useless in this case. These backups systems synchronise daily or even hourly so
they will have a copy of the encrypted file as well.

Anti virus solution creators
are working on detecting the virus and stopping it in it's tracks before it
releases the payload but reports from users on popular forums show that
detection is not amounting to prevention so far.

As the virus is delivered
through an email attachment in an email which will look like it came from the
same domain name, it is easy to open the attachment by mistake. In spite of
this it is still important to warn your employees not to open any attachments
that they are not expecting even if they look legitimate and if the are coming
from people within the same company.

Finally, if you realise that
you have been infected, immediately disconnect your computer from your network
and call ICT support.

Should you pay ?

If all fails and you end up
with your company data unusable, at the moment you have no other option but to
pay and pray that in the meantime, these crooks are still around to supply the
decryption keys. If your data is not important then simply re-format the PC and
start again.

The citizens dialogue was organized this week by the European
Commission Representation Office in Malta and it was nice to see such an active
participation from the citizens that were present.

The topics touched upon were
numerous, including healthcare when travelling abroad, roaming charges, the
tobacco saga, residence scheme, the sale of Maltese citizenship, immigration,
animal rights, voting for blind people, GMOs, etc…

The Commissioner explained that it is important to
distinguish between what is of Europe and what is of the Member State.
Sometimes we blame the EU for things that are of the competence of the
Governments. Do we want more Europe or less Europe? People's perception changes
according to the circumstance. When everything is going well we feel we do not
need Europe and want to be left on our own and do not feel the need to help our
fellow member states that are going through difficult times. On the other hand
when crises hits or when a particular problem arises we critises the EU for not
doing enough and not having more powers in certain areas.

We sometimes forget why the EU exists and we become
skeptical if we need it. We forget what there was before the European structure
was set up. The EU does not only helps us to cooperate towards greater good and
prosperity instead of fighting each other. Other than the practical benefits
that come with joining the EU there is great added value such as security and
solidarity. Due to the fact that people forget why we need Europe they do not
see the need for solidarity and this is an effort everyone has to make to help
citizens understand that solidarity is in everyone's best interest as we are
one Europe.

Do citizens feel their voice is being heard? Malta
always scores above the EU average for questions like this. Since Lisbon the
European Citizens have gained a new voice through the European Citizens'
Initiative. Through this initiative citizens can put items of common concern on
the EU agenda.

When asked how they see the EU in the next 10 years,
the panel of speakers – European Commissioner Tonio Borg, Head of the
Commission Representation in Malta Martin Bugelli and Head of the EP
Representation in Malta Peter Agius – all were very positive. All see the EU
doing well, even better than today, they see a larger Europe and an inclusive
one where citizens are at its heart. Commissioner Borg stated that Malta will
continue advancing in the EU and continue increasing its influence, further
overcoming our smallness.