With a sentence published yesterday, the Administrative Court Regional for Lazio upheld the appeals supported by the Italian Association of Port Terminal Operators (Assiteminal) and by Asso.N.A.T. - National Association of Tourist Ports and Marinas and proposed against Istat increases in concession fees maritime state property relating to the year 2023 and the criteria for definition of fee updates.

Assonat-Confcommercio expressed great satisfaction with the ruling of the Regional Administrative Court annulling the decree of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, of 10 December 2023, which provided for a Istat increase of 25.15% on fees for state concessions based - specified Assonat - on an index that is not provided for by current legislation: "the Administrative Court - explained the association - noted that this increase was calculated using an alternative method, which does not comply with what is established by the legislator (Article 04, paragraph 1, of the Decree-Law no. 400/1993), in violation of the principle of legality. In particular, the TAR pointed out that the index applied by the Ministry differed from the one expected, i.e. the average of the indices Istat on consumer prices for blue-collar and blue-collar households and values for the wholesale market".

"This decision - underlined the president of Assonat, Luciano Serra - represents an important recognition of the requests brought forward by Assonat to protect the concessionaires and reiterates the importance of public administration dialogue with users".

The director of Assiterminal, Alessandro Ferrari, noted which "is now up to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport adapt its measures established by decree, to the Authorities Port System to make adjustments, or to find forms of compensation for all concessionaires - including terminals cruises -, and solve a debated and contrasted issue also by Assiterminal for at least two years in the interest of the entire cluster of ports".