Fairway dues

Fairway dues are levied on ships engaged in merchant shipping in Finnish territorial waters.

The shipowner pays the fairway dues

The shipowner is liable to pay fairway dues. “Shipowner” means the owner or the charterer of a ship or any other organization or person who has assumed the responsibility for operation of the ship.

A fairway due declaration is submitted to Customs electronically via the Portnet system, and it must include the details required for determining the dues.

A shipowner established in the EU or EEA can use a jointly liable representative to pay the fairway dues. A shipowner or a jointly liable representative can apply for the status of registered fairway due customer, who is granted a period for payment.

A shipowner established in the EU or EEA can use a jointly liable representative. The shipowner and their representative are jointly liable for paying the fairway dues. Acting as a representative is subject to an authorisation granted by Customs.

The status of jointly liable representative is granted to a natural or legal person who is established in a state in the EU or EEA, who is reliable and has sufficient financial solvency, who knows the provisions and procedures concerning fairway dues and who has not committed any serious or repeated infringements of customs or tax legislation.

Application form 988 (available in Finnish and Swedish)

A registered fairway due customer is granted a term of payment for the fairway dues. The registered customer must pay the fairway dues to Customs’ bank account on the Friday of the seventh week following the week of issue of the decision on fairway dues.

Fairway dues may require a guarantee. When determining the guarantee, the following is considered: the operator’s reliability, the scope of the operations and the operator’s economic conditions for liability for the fairway dues.

Application form 1056 (available in Finnish and Swedish)

When defining a guarantee, the average amount of the customer’s fairway due debt is taken into account. The guarantee is based on an average seven-week fairway due invoicing period.

A registered fairway due customer does not need a comprehensive guarantee authorisation to use a guarantee. However, when defining the guarantees for fairway dues, equivalent guarantee categories are used as in the comprehensive guarantee authorisation. A guarantee is not required for guarantee category BD.

Read more about guarantee categories (currently the link takes you to the old pages “Guarantees”)

Read more about lodging a guarantee (currently the link takes you to the old page “Guarantee templates”)

Note that the guarantee requirement may be higher than the average seven-week fairway due invoicing, for example, due to a preparation for large seasonal fluctuations or to ensure the payment of taxes.

Guarantee requirement for fairway dues in the different guarantee categories (in seven-week invoicing):

Guarantee category BD: 0%
Guarantee category BC: 30%
Guarantee category BB: 50%
Guarantee category BA: 100%

Scope of application of the Act on Fairway Dues

Customs is responsible for collecting the fairway due in its entirety. The Act on Fairway Dues applies to ships engaged in merchant shipping in Finland’s territorial waters. The Act on Fairway Dues does not apply to

ships that navigate in the Saimaa Canal or Saimaa waters;
ships that on their way between foreign ports sail through Finnish territorial waters without calling at a Finnish port;
ships that arrive in and depart from Finland via the Saimaa Canal without calling at a Finnish coastal port;
cargo and cruise ships with a net tonnage of under 300, and
passenger ships with a net tonnage of under 600
ships that are used for icebreaking on the inner or outer territorial waters of Finland and provide icebreaking services to the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency based on contracts or bilateral treaties

The Act on Fairway Dues categorises ships into four types. The ship type is a deciding factor in determining the amount of fairway dues.

Passenger ship means a ship that may carry at least 120 passengers but is not a cruise ship or a high-speed craft.
Cruise ship means a ship that may carry more than 12 passengers, is engaged in cruise traffic and, when calling in Finland, does not load or unload cargo, except for the fuel and provisions necessary for the ship’s own needs. Cruise traffic means sea voyages in which a ship that is not in scheduled liner service calls, in addition to a Finnish port, at no fewer than two foreign ports during the same voyage.
High-speed craft means a high-speed craft referred to in the International Convention (Finnish Treaty Series 11/1981).
Cargo ship, as defined by the Act on Fairway Dues, include all ships other than passenger ships, cruise ships and high-speed craft regardless of their type and purpose of use, even in cases where a ship is not considered a cargo ship based on technical classification. Vessels without propulsion machinery of their own are considered cargo ships according to the ship type classification in the Act on Fairway Dues. However, their unit prices are fixed as opposed to other cargo ships, as provided for by section 6 of the Act on Fairway Dues. Furthermore, integrated tug-barge combinations can technically be equated to a cargo ship. Integrated tug-barge combination means a rigidly connected composite unit of a vessel without propulsion machinery of its own and an associated pushing vessel with propulsion machinery, when the design and integration system is such that the combination is capable of operating as a single ship.

Fairway dues are payable when a ship enters Finnish territorial waters from abroad or arrives in a Finnish port from another Finnish port.

Fairway dues are not payable when a ship arrives in a port in the Saimaa waters or when a ship calls for cargo in another port in the Saimaa waters. However, fairway dues are payable when a ship arrives from the Saimaa Canal to a coastal seaport.

If a ship, during a voyage, unloads cargo or leaves passengers from abroad at more than one Finnish port or loads cargo or takes passengers destined for abroad from more than one Finnish port, the fairway dues are payable only once. However, if a ship on an international voyage, during that voyage, calls for cargo or passengers at a Finnish port in order to carry the cargo or passengers to another Finnish port, the ship is required to pay fairway dues for every call at a Finnish port.

If a ship, during a voyage, between loading operations carried out in Finnish ports, calls at a foreign port in order to load additional cargo for reasons of loading or stowing optimisation, the fairway dues are payable only once.

Calculating the fairway dues and unit prices

The fairway dues payable are calculated by multiplying the net tonnage of the ship by the unit price. The unit price for cargo ships and passenger ships is determined based on the ice class. Fixed unit prices that are independent of the ice class are set for cruise and high-speed craft.

Ships without propulsion machinery of their own are considered cargo ships according to the ship type classification in the Act on Fairway Dues, and they are otherwise subject to the provisions applicable to cargo ships, but the unit price is fixed as opposed to other cargo ships. The net tonnage of an integrated tug-barge combination is the combined net tonnage of the two vessels.

Ice classes IA Super and IA have different unit prices. Ice classes IB and IC and ice classes II and III together constitute payment classes.

However, in the case of cargo ships, if a cargo ship has a net tonnage of more than 25 000, the net tonnage in excess of this amount is multiplied by a figure that is half the unit price of the ice class.

Unit prices for fairway dues as of 1 January 2015

Ice class	Cargo ship Unit price (euros)	Passenger ship Unit price (euros)
1A Super	0,470	0,625
1A	1,098	1,294
1B, 1C	2,578	2,358
2, 3	4,381	4,169

The unit price for a cruise ship is EUR 0.911, for a high-speed craft EUR 5.381 and for a vessel without propulsion machinery of its own EUR 2.107.

Maximum amount of fairway dues payable per port call and per year

The maximum fairway dues payable for cargo ships and high-speed craft for one port call is 53 875 euros. However, for a passenger ship, fairway dues may not exceed EUR 16 215, and for a cruise ship, they may not exceed EUR 22 250.

For a passenger ship and a high-speed craft, the fairway dues are payable for the first 30 port calls made during a calendar year. For cargo ships, fairway dues must be paid for the first 10 port calls made during a calendar year. The number of fairway dues to be paid for an integrated tug-barge combination is calculated based on the port calls of the pushing vessel. For a cruise ship, the fairway dues must be paid for each port call, regardless of the number of port calls.

Where a ship sometimes operates as a passenger ship and sometimes as a cruise ship, voyages made as a cruise ship are not counted towards the maximum annual amount. The annual maximum amount of fairway dues covering 30 port calls only concerns port calls made in the capacity of a passenger ship.

Reduced fairway dues for cargo ships

The fairway dues for a cargo ship can be reduced based on the ship’s loading capacity utilization rate, i.e. reduction for incomplete cargo, if the prerequisites of the Fairway Due Act are fulfilled. The reduction is either 75 or 50 per cent depending on the loading capacity utilisation rate.

The fairway dues for a cargo ship collecting transit goods for export from a Finnish port are reduced by 50 per cent. Export here does not mean export as defined in the customs legislation, but transit traffic from Russia via a Finnish port to Sweden, for example. An absolute prerequisite is that the entire cargo of the ship consists of transit cargo.

The fairway dues for a cargo ship are reduced by 75 per cent if the ship carries cargo from abroad that because of compelling reasons relating to the ship’s large size must be transported from the port of call to another Finnish port by other ships.

The fairway dues for a cargo ship are reduced by 50 per cent if, in connection with a voyage to the Saimaa Canal, the ship carries cargo from abroad to a Finnish coastal port or if, in connection with a voyage to the Saimaa Canal, the ship takes cargo destined for abroad from a Finnish coastal port.

The loading capacity utilization rate is calculated by comparing the figure showing the combined total of cargo imported to and exported from Finland, as indicated in metric tonnes with a figure that is 90 per cent of the ship’s deadweight. When the ship’s utilization rate is calculated, the ship’s cargo in transit is added both to the cargo imported to and to the cargo exported from Finland.

Notification for payment of fairway dues

The party liable to pay must provide Customs with an electronic notification for determining the fairway dues. The notification must contain the information necessary for determining the dues. The following regulations apply to information to be provided for determining the fairway dues:

Regulation (3/2018) issued by Finnish Customs on the notification procedure for vessels arriving at and departing from Finnish ports

Charging estimated fairway dues

Failure to submit a fairway dues notification or submitting an incomplete notification may lead to estimate fairway dues being charged. In such situations, the customs authorities shall, by imposing a threat of charging estimated fairway dues, advice the party liable to pay to submit a notification for payment or complete the incomplete notification.

If, despite the request, no notification for payment has been submitted or it is not possible to collect the fairway dues even based on the completed notification, the charging will be based on an estimate. Before the charging of estimated fairway dues, the party liable to pay will be given an opportunity to be heard.

When charging estimated fairway dues a payment increase or penalty charge may be ordered.

Retrospective charges

If there has been a failure to charge the fairway dues in full or in part because the party liable to pay has, in full or in part, neglected its notification obligation or submitted an incomplete, misleading or false notification or other incomplete, misleading or false information or documents for charging fairway dues, or if, for the same reason, the refunded amount is too high, the customs authorities shall order that the party liable to pay pays the fairway dues not charged.

Retrospective charging is carried out within three years. The retrospective charging for a shipowner’s representative must be carried out within eighteen months. However, a shorter period of retrospective charging requires that the shipowner’s representative established in a member State of the European Union or the European Economic Area who has been approved by the customs authorities did not know and could not have known that the notification, documents or other information submitted for charging fairway dues are incomplete, misleading or false.

Payment reduction

Customs may, on application, reduce the fairway dues, the payment increase or the penalty interest paid or to be paid, or the interest to be paid because of postponement, or cancel it altogether. The reduction regulation is only meant to be implemented in exceptional circumstances.

The free-form application should specify on what basis and for which decision reduction is sought. The application should be signed by the person(s) entitled to sign for the company. If the application was drafted by an agent, the power of attorney must be enclosed. Send the application for payment reduction to the address: Tulli, Tuonnin oikaisuhakemukset, PL 512, 00101 Helsinki.

Customs sends the applicant a decision in writing.

Postponement of payment

Postponement of payment of fairway dues may also be applied. When a postponement of payment is granted, the tax debt is paid according to a payment plan.

Postponement of payment is applied for with a written application. The customer receives a written decision free of charge regarding the application. If the postponement of payment is granted, interest for the postponement is levied for the postponement period.

Send the application for postponement of payment to Tullin veronkanto / perintä, PL 512, 00101 Helsinki

The following information should be provided in the application:

the applicant’s company details and contact information
Suggested payment plan
Reasons for why the postponement of payment should be granted / reasons for the application
For which decision on fairway dues the postponement is applied
If the application was drafted by an agent, the power of attorney must be enclosed.

Preliminary ruling

On application, Customs may issue a preliminary ruling concerning the application of the provisions on fairway dues if the matter is of special importance for the applicant. No preliminary ruling shall, however, be issued on a ship’s ice class or net tonnage or on the amount of the fairway dues.

The application shall specify the matter referred to for a preliminary ruling and give the details necessary for issuing a ruling on the matter. The preliminary ruling is issued for a specific period. A preliminary ruling that has become legally valid shall, as requested by the applicant, be observed as a binding decision as laid down in the preliminary ruling.

Send the application for preliminary ruling to the address: Tulli, Tuonnin oikaisuhakemukset, PL 512, 00101 Helsinki.

The preliminary ruling is subject to a charge. Read more: Fees charged for Customs’ services.

Request for administrative review

Request for administrative review of a customs decision on fairway dues, reduction or postponement of payment

You can request administrative review of a customs decision by making an application for administrative review.

Provide the following information in the application:

the decision for which a review is requested
how you wish the decision to be reviewed
the grounds for requesting a review
your name, address, telephone number and email address
account number (BIC and IBAN)

Enclose the decision for which you are requesting a review as well as documents to which you are referring in your request and which may affect the decision in the matter.

Send the request with enclosures by email to kirjaamo@tulli.fi or by post to Tulli, Tuonnin oikaisuhakemukset, PL 512, 00101 Helsinki.

You can appeal against the decision by Finnish Customs regarding your request for administrative review by filing an appeal with Helsinki Administrative Court. How to file an appeal with the Administrative Court. (oikeus.fi)

Requesting an administrative review of Customs’ decision on preliminary ruling

A Customs’ decision on preliminary ruling cannot be review by Customs; rather an appeal must be filed with Helsinki Administrative Court. How to file an appeal with the Administrative Court. (oikeus.fi)

Updated: Tue Oct 22 00:00:00 EEST 2024