LOAN INTEREST RATE SUBSIDY (GUEST HOUSES, HOSTELS, HOTELS, FARMHOUSES AND RESTAURANTS) [ S.L.463.06 SUBSIDIARY LEGISLATION 463.06 LOAN INTEREST RATE SUBSIDY (GUEST HOUSES, HOSTELS, HOTELS, FARMHOUSES AND RESTAURANTS) REGULATIONS 1st October, 2010* LEGAL NOTICE 531 of
- The title of these regulations is Loan Interest Rate Subsidy (Guest Houses, Hostels, Hotels, Farmhouses and Restaurants) Regulations.
- In these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires: Citation. Interpretation. "the Act" means the Malta Enterprise Act; Cap.
- "bank" means a bank in terms of the Banking Act; Cap.
- "the Corporation” means the Malta Enterprise established under the Act; "eligible costs" means expenditure of a capital nature, incurred as part of an eligible investment project; "eligible investment project" means a project for the refurbishment or upgrading of a guest house, hostel, hotel, farmhouse or restaurant, or for the acquisition of new machinery, apparatus or instrument to be used in the operation of a guest house, hostel, hotel, farmhouse or restaurant, such project being approved by the Corporation under these regulations and as may be prescribed in the Guidelines, in respect of which project eligible costs have been incurred and which new machinery, apparatus or instrument are retained within the business for at least five years or such other shorter period as the Corporation may deem appropriate in view of the nature of the project: Provided that an investment project shall not be treated as an eligible investment project if it is linked to: (a) purchase of land or property; (b) wages; (c) operating expenses; "farmhouse" means a holiday premises which is constructed and finished to represent a typical Maltese farmhouse, located in an area compatible with a farmhouse environment; "financial institution" means financial institution as defined in the Financial Institutions Act; "Guidelines" means such guidelines as may be published by the Corporation from time to time in terms of the Act; *see regulation 1
(2)as originally promulgated. Cap.
- 1 2 [ S.L.463.06 Cap.
- LOAN INTEREST RATE SUBSIDY (GUEST HOUSES, HOSTELS, HOTELS, FARMHOUSES AND RESTAURANTS) "guest house" means a guest house as defined and licensed to operate as such in terms of the Malta Travel and Tourism Services Act; Cap.
- "hostel" means a hostel as defined and licensed to operate as such in terms of the Malta Travel and Tourism Services Act; Cap.
- "hotel" means a hotel as defined and licensed to operate as such in terms of the Malta Travel and Tourism Services Act; "large undertaking", "medium-sized undertaking", "small undertaking" shall have the meaning attributed to them by Annex I of Commission Regulation (EC) No 800/2008 of 6 August 2008 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the common market in application of Articles 87 and 88 of the Treaty (General Block Exemption Regulation); S.L. 409.15 Cap.
- "restaurant" means a catering establishment as defined under the Catering Establishments Regulations, and licensed to operate as such in terms of the Malta Travel and Tourism Services Act; "undertaking" means an undertaking as defined in the Act. Loan interest subsidy. 3.
(1)Where the Corporation is satisfied that an undertaking which carries out, in Malta, a trade or business consisting mainly of the operation or management of a guest house, hostel, hotel, farmhouse or restaurant, intends to carry out an eligible investment project, as shall have been approved by the Corporation, the Corporation may subsidise the rate of interest payable by the undertaking on loans which the said undertaking may take out in order to finance eligible costs to be incurred as part of such an eligible investment project: Provided that this benefit shall be calculated on the eligible costs incurred as from 1st June 2010 till the 31st December 2013.
(2)The subsidy referred to in subregulation
(1)shall be such as t o e n su r e t h a t t h e r a t e o f i n t er e st eff e c t i v e l y b o r n e b y t h e undertaking shall not exceed the rate of interest that shall be arrived at by deducting between one and three percentage points from the rate of interest charged by the bank or the financial institution.
(3)The loan interest rate subsidy that may be granted in terms of this regulation shall be applicable only to interest payable during the first five years of a loan period on a loan amount that shall not exceed the sum of seven million euro (€7,000,000) in the case of an undertaking operating as a guest house, hostel, hotel or a farmhouse and on a loan amount that shall not exceed the sum of five hundred thousand euro (€500,000) in the case of an undertaking operating as a restaurant.
(4)Loans which qualify for the interest rate subsidy contemplated by this regulation shall be loans provided by banks and other financial institutions. Aid intensity.
- The assistance granted in terms of regulation 3 shall not exceed fifty per cent (50%) of eligible costs in the case of small undertakings, forty per cent (40%) of the eligible costs in the case of medium-sized undertakings and thirty per cent (30%) of eligible LOAN INTEREST RATE SUBSIDY (GUEST HOUSES, HOSTELS, HOTELS, FARMHOUSES AND RESTAURANTS) [ S.L.463.06 costs in the case of large undertakings.
- Applications for assistance under these regulations shall reach the Corporation by not later than the 31st December,
- Last day for submission of applications for assistance. 3