Fairway dues to rise

Ministry of Transport and Communications
Publication date 15.12.2011 13.56
Press release

The Finnish Government proposes a 9.5 per cent increase to fairway dues in maritime transport. As per the proposal, the increase is to be equally targeted at all payment categories.

The Government submitted a bill on fairway dues for approval to the President of the Republic on 15 December. The President is expected to approve the bill on Friday. The amendment is meant to enter into force on 1 January 2012.

The reason for the need to increase payments is related to efforts aimed at covering the costs of icebreaking and waterways management by fairway dues. The costs of icebreaking operations, in particular, have gone up because of the past two severe winters, and the accrual of fairway dues has remained lower than expected.

The increase would bring additional income of EUR 8.8 million to the State. Despite this, the cost-effectiveness of fairway dues would be no higher than 88.3 per cent.

Parliament submitted a resolution in conjunction with the amendment. It requires that the Government initiates a process to update legislation on fairway dues as a whole, taking into consideration the environmental characteristics of vessels and the actual use of icebreaking services.

Further information: Pekka Kouhia, Senior Government Adviser, tel. +358 9 160 28612