Fairway dues to be permanently halved in two stages 

In accordance with the Government Programme of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, the Ministry of Transport and Communications has started preparations to make the halving of fairway dues permanent. 

“The permanent halving of fairway dues has a significant impact on the competitiveness of the Finnish export industry. Their permanent halving will be implemented in two stages,” says Lulu Ranne, Minister of Transport and Communications.
 
During the first stage, the validity of the halving of the fairway dues will be extended so that the current fixed-term halving continues uninterrupted. Alongside this change, a legislative project is under way to permanently halve fairway dues as of 1 January 2025. 

On 9 October 2023, the Government submitted to Parliament a Government proposal for an Act amending the implementing provision of the Act on amending and temporarily amending the Act on Fairway Dues. The proposal will extend the validity of the halving to 2024–2027 in the first stage. The act is intended to enter into force as soon as possible and no later than 31 December 2023. 
 
The government proposal is related to the 2024 budget proposal and will be discussed in connection with it.
 
Making the halving of fairway dues permanent will support the competitiveness of Finland’s foreign trade by curbing the rise in the costs of merchant shipping and improving the predictability of fairway dues. At the same time, the regularity of vessel traffic and the suitability for winter traffic will continue to be controlled with fairway dues. The fairway dues have been halved since 2015.
 
Fairway dues are payable to the government for ships engaged in merchant shipping in Finnish territorial waters when the ship enters Finnish territorial waters from abroad or arrives in a Finnish port from another Finnish port. 

Next steps

The Act amending the implementing provision of the Act on amending and temporarily amending the Act on Fairway Dues is intended to enter into force as soon as possible and no later than 31 December 2023. 
 
There is also a project under way to make the halving of fairway dues permanent. The amendments are in-tended to enter into force on 1 January 2025. 

More information

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