Fairway dues to be collected in full

The Ministry of Transport and Communications has launched a legislative project to restart the collection of fairway dues in full from 2025 onwards.

The law drafting is based on a decision made by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's Government in its session on spending limits on 15 and 16 April 2024. Accordingly, in order to balance general government finances, fairway dues will be again collected in full. However, the amount of dues will continue to be tied to the vessel ice class in order to ensure the smooth running of maritime transport in winter.

Fairway dues were halved in 2015 under temporary legislation.

In line with the Government Programme, the Ministry has been working on a legislative project to halve fairway dues permanently. This projet will now be closed.

Fairway dues are payable to the State for merchant ships in Finnish territorial waters when they enter Finnish territorial waters from abroad or arrive in a Finnish port from another Finnish port. Fairway dues are collected by Customs.

Next steps

A public consultation on the legislative project will begin in June 2024.

The government proposal is expected to be submitted to Parliament with the 2025 budget proposal.

Inquiries

Juha Tervonen, Chief Specialist, tel. +358 295 342 070, [email protected]