Judicial protest accuses VAT Director General of acting abusively

In a judicial protest filed last week, Maria Odette Portelli called upon the Director General for VAT to revoke a garnishee order against her for costs related to a third-party debt, subsequently repaid in full, that she had stood as guarantor for.

Aslan Catering Ltd was a debtor of the Director General VAT and had reached an agreement with the Director General VAT for the payment of outstanding amount, some €46,942 in total.

On the same contract, Maria Odette Portelli stood as guarantor for the company. In doing so, she granted a special hypothec on two properties of hers for the amount in question to the Director General of VAT.

As Aslan Catering did not settle the amounts due, Portelli was served with a garnishee order for the amount due by the main debtor to the VAT department.

Eventually, the company availed itself of the scheme issued by the VAT dept for the reduction of penalties and fines and paid all the balance due.

However, the protest claims that the Director General VAT is at present still seeking payment of certain costs, and is refusing to cancel the hypothecs made against Portelli, as well as refusing to give its consent to issue a counter warrant against the garnishee order.

Furthermore, it seems that Portelli was never notified by the VAT department that proceedings were to be made against the principal debtor for the recovery of the debt.

In the protest, filed on Friday 10 October, it is argued that she cannot be held responsible for the costs related to such proceedings. She was responsible solely for the payment of the initial debt, and not the costs of any subsequent proceedings as she wasn’t notified with the acts.

The protest accuses the Director General VAT of acting abusively in not cooperating to cancel the hypothec and to issue the necessary counter warrant.

Lawyers, Robert Galea and Shaheryar Ghaznavi signed the protest.