Port tariffs, as stipulated under Article 14 of Spanish Law 48/2003, are levied for the private use or special exploitation of public port land and for the rendering of non-commercial services by Spanish port authorities.
The regulations governing port tariffs are contained in Spanish Law 48/2003 of 26th November 2003, BOE (Official State Gazette) No. 284 of 27th November 2003, and in any such matters as not contained therein, in the Spanish Law on Public Tariffs and Prices, the Law on General Tax and regulatory standards established from the development of such laws.
These tariffs are classified as follows:
a) For the private utilisation or special exploitation of public port land:
Tariff for privately occupying public port land.
Article 19 of Spanish Law 48/2003 includes diverse legal aspects required for the appropriate levying of this tariff, and in paragraph 1 states that “the occupation of public port land, by virtue of concessions or authorisation, shall be subject to the corresponding tariff in favour of the Port Authority”.
Tariff for special use of port facilities. This tariff includes:
- Vessel tariff
- Leisure and sport craft tariff
- Passenger tariff
- Goods tariff
- Fishing tariff
Tariff for the special use of public port land to carry out commercial, industrial and service activities.
Article 28 of Spanish Law 48/2003 includes diverse legal aspects required for the appropriate levying of this tariff, and in paragraph 1 states that “the rendering by third parties of services and the exercise of commercial, industrial or other activities of a similar or dissimilar nature on port premises shall be subject to authorisation or licence, which shall be subject to the corresponding tariff in favour of the Port Authority”.
b) For the rendering of non-commercial services by port authorities. These tariffs include:
- General services tariff (abolished as of 1st May 2008 under section 2 of the sixth final provision of Spanish Law 31/2007, published in the BOE (Official State Gazette) No. 261 on 31st October 2007)
- Maritime signalling tariff
Article 26 of Spanish Law 48/2003 includes that each port authority shall annually apply an identical corrective factor to its vessel, passenger and goods tariffs, depending on the profitability of its operations. This factor, intended among other purposes to make ports more competitive, was established for the year 2009 at 0.946 by the Port Authority of Valencia’s Board of Directors at its board meeting held on 18th December 2008 so that the vessel, passenger and goods tariffs that have been applicable since 1st May 2008 could be maintained.
This reduction in cost of the vessel, passenger and goods tariffs has been applied to the amounts indicated below in the individual explanation of each tariff.