MACI to collect own cash and offer registry deals
(CNS Business): The Marine Authority of the Cayman Islands will be able to offer discounts and package deals to clients as a result of an amendment to the merchant shipping law. A small change to the legislation which removes the shipping fees from government’s coercive revenue to entity revenue will allow the authority to keep the money and create package deals and special prices to make the registry more competitive. Minister for Financial Services Wayne Panton said that MACI was competing with other jurisdictions that had much more flexibility.
These means that around $150,000 which once went to Treasury will now go directly to MACI, allowing it to set new prices on what were once prescribed fees if a client is registering a significant number of vessels.
Panton said that it would allow flexibility for MACI and would allow it to operate more efficiently and effectively in what he described as a competitive market.
Although the issue received the support of the House, Arden McLean, the member for East End, raised concerns regarding a technicality in the law about the fees being prescribed and said that more would need to be done to revise the legislation to do what the minister wanted. Reminding the House about the recent revelations that MACI was failing to cover its costs, he warned against giving it these powers when there had been questions about the running of the authority and its escalating costs.
After a drawn out debate and friction between McLean and Attorney General Samuel Bulgin over the need to amend other elements of the law, the bill finally moved through the committee and on to the House, where it passed.
Category: Finance, Financial Services
