Belize Ship Registry (IMMARBE) announces discounts and incentives for ship owners
The International Merchant Marine of Belize (IMMARBE) has announced a series of discounts and incentives for ship owners who register their vessels under the Belize flag, effective January 1, 2013, according to press release.
The Belize Ship Registry that figures amongst the 20 first open registries, recorded a good performance in 2012 increasing total tonnage by 8% to 2.12m tons and reducing the age of the fleet by one year thanks to growth in the registration of new builds and vessels under 5 years.
The new fees structure gives incentive discounts for new builds and bigger tonnage vessels, as well as loyalty incentives and special discounts for good records and no detentions at PSCs. The discounts and incentives reward the excellence at Port State Control and the registration of economic groups, and give Belize’s Registry a very competitive edge with other open registries with regard to pricing bringing the Belize Register amongst the best financial offers. “These new dispositions show an effort from both the government of Belize and the Ship Registry to move our fleet towards bigger quality ships and enhance our recently attained grey status on the Paris and Tokyo MOU lists,” IMMARBE Director General Capt Encarnacion Samaniego said.
Vessels with no detention during any calendar year will be entitled to a 25% rebate and after 24 months or more of no Port State Control detentions; the rebate will increase to 35% of the normal annual tax due. This new provision will improve the quality of the fleet by reducing detentions in the main Port State Controls.
Ship owners, ship management companies or groups registering 3 to 10 vessels by a ship owner, regardless of tonnage will be entitled to a discount of 25% on the registration fee, annual service tax for the first year applied at the point of initial registration; for fleets of more than 10 vessels, the discounts will be of 50%.
For the new builds and bigger tonnage vessels, discounts for subsequent year taxes. For new builds under 7,500gt a discount of 25% on the registration fee, and the annual service tax for the first year applied at the point of initial registration, 25% on the annual tonnage tax and service tax and on the second year and a 20% discount on the annual tonnage tax on the third year. Such discount will be up 35% for vessels over 7,500Gt and under 25,000gt, a discount of 35% while discounts will increase for vessels over 25,000gt to 50% on registrations fees and 35% on tonnage taxes. Discounts are also considered for vessels of 15 years and under depending of their tonnage.