It couldn't have been more elite - Montenegrin and Croatian presidents Filip Vujanović and Ivo Josipović set foot on the luxurious 4-meter mega-yacht "Spirit" on September 35.
The presidents sailed from Donja Lastva to Perast, while the flag of the Cayman Islands flew above their heads. The rental of the large yacht from Porto Montenegro was financed by that company and the Municipality of Tivat, but it is not known to whom the money was paid.
It is not even known whether the catamaran-yacht could be rented by law, because the Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs is silent. After three weeks of waiting (21 days), the ministry did not provide "Vijesti Nedjeljom" with a list of domestic and foreign yachts registered for charter in Montenegro.
According to Article 35 of the Law on Yachts, the charter entrepreneur must first be registered in Montenegro.
Small yachts for rent in Montenegro are also offered through many local, Croatian and Serbian companies, and often entrepreneurs from abroad found companies.
That money should be the income of the state budget, but the state does not know or will not say what sums are involved. A diverse company is engaged in renting small fishing boats, but also large super yachts the length of a football field.
Montenegrins and foreigners who work in the style of the Troter brothers from "Mućka", dozens of agencies, but also well-known foreign charter chains entered the yacht charter business.
"We are registered in Montenegro for chartering yachts, but we do not pay that compensation for our ships. Hardly any of those who charter ships under a foreign flag do so," said an interviewee from the Montenegrin representative office of one of the better-known foreign franchises for "Vijesti Nedjeljom". .
The Ministry of Transport said that in 2012, the state treasury received nothing from the fee for renting old yachts, while this year, the income on that basis is a symbolic 2.230 euros.
Part of the luxury offered by North Star Yachts
That there is much more money in this area, but also what kind of business is involved, is confirmed by the example of the company "North Star Yachts", which operates in Spain, Montenegro and Croatia.
According to their catalog, a total of 7 larger sailboats and motor yachts under foreign flags are based in Montenegro and are rented out. If only the mandatory one-year compensation were paid for those ships, the state would earn 50.000 euros.
As the VAT for charter yachts has not been reduced to 7 percent, but amounts to a full 19 percent, Montenegro's income on that basis would be even more impressive.
The weekly charter of "North Star" ships in the peak of the season cost from 17.500 to 120.000 euros, which is the amount that had to be paid for the rental of the 46-meter luxury motor yacht "Mona Lisa", which is located in Tivat's Porto Montenegro. The Montenegrin treasury should have collected 22.800 euros from VAT alone for one week's rental of the "Mona Lisa".
Whether this was done, "Vijesti nedjejom" could not get a confirmation from the Montenegrin office of "North Star Yachts". Our direct appeals to the managers, for example, of the 27-meter motor ship "Gatsby" under the British flag, which has its home port in Porto Montenegro, remained unanswered.
View from Yacht Gatsby to Porto Montenegro
From Porto, this luxurious "Sunseeker" sails on charters in the waters of the Adriatic and the Aegean. A few months ago, Captain Nikolas Bul boasted in the magazine "Porto Montenegro Journal" about the ideal conditions for charter business in Montenegro.
Bul praised the extremely low price of fuel exempt from customs duty and VAT, which he "has never seen anywhere in the world", and the very liberal regulations in Montenegro.
The management of the company through which "Gatsby" was rented from Tivat this summer for 6,2 thousand euros per day, or 43 thousand euros per week, did not answer whether they registered as entrepreneurs in Montenegro and paid the annual compensation.
The same questions related to the 20-meter sailboat "Mistique", which also departs from Porto Montenegro for charter tours, remained unanswered. Our questions were silenced by the British company "Yachtmasters", which, in addition to its representative office in Montenegro, also has an office in Monaco.
This company offers a huge range of mega and super yachts for rent from 30 to even 135 meters in length. This summer, the 39-meter motor yacht "Snowbird" under the flag of the Cayman Islands often sailed in Bok, as well as the 48-meter "Lady Joy" under the flag of the Marshall Islands, the 48-meter "Mary Jean" under the flag of the British Dominion Islands. Man, as well as the 70-meter "Sherakhan" under the flag of the Netherlands, which was anchored near the island of St. Mark for days.
The 82-meter Greek yacht "O'Mega" also came to Boka, also in the charter offer of "Yachtmasters", at a price of 525 thousand euros per week!
Small yachts for rent in Montenegro are also offered through many local, Croatian or Serbian companies, and often entrepreneurs from abroad found companies.
The Russian company "Parus M" operates in Kotor, which keeps six 10- to 15-meter-long sailboats and two catamarans on one of the piers in the marina there, which it rents for 2.100 to 6.840 euros per week.
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The Russian company also has a "Jeanneau 46" motor yacht, which it rents for 9.390 euros per week. With them, you can also go on a fishing tour with an 8-meter-long fishing boat with an American flag on it, which costs 25 euros per hour.
Director Jurij Tomakov said in a telephone conversation that he only paid vignettes for the ships he rents in Montenegro, but not the annual fee.
From the company "Yachting Montenegro", whose website does not have the address of their headquarters, but only a mobile phone number is available, they did not answer the questions whether they are properly registered and whether the mandatory duties to the state have been paid for ships under a foreign flag.
About a hundred different boats are offered on their website, and rental prices sometimes exceed half a million euros. In the records of the Commercial Court of Montenegro, there is no information about the registration of the company named "Montenegro Yacht Charter".
Sanja Božović from the Podgorica company "Montenegro Charter", which maintains a fleet of 10 sailboats and one motor yacht for rent in Kotor, says that since their ships fly foreign flags because they are under leasing, they regularly pay both vignettes and annual compensation.
"Our company has been registered for yacht charter since its foundation in 2008, and the ship with which we first started working has the registration number MNE 0003, which means that it is the third one in Montenegro registered under the Montenegro flag. The other ships with which we worked with and with whom we work now", said Jelena Milentijević-Jevtić from the Bar company "Yachting Adria".
From the company "Yachting Montenegro", whose website does not have the address of their headquarters, but only a mobile phone number is available, they did not answer questions about whether they are properly registered and whether the mandatory duties to the state have been paid for ships under a foreign flag.
The state helped the "black charter"
The adoption of the Law on Yachts in 2007 was one of the conditions that Canadian billionaire Peter Munk presented to the Government of Milo Đukanović before he bought the Tivat military shipyard Arsenal.
The Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism did not want to answer questions about the economic benefits for Montenegro from the current application of the Law on Yachts, how many citizens are employed in the nautical industry and how many taxes and contributions have been collected.
Thus, the Parliament of Montenegro adopted the Law on Yachts, which was previously prepared by the Government in cooperation with experts from Manko's team. A special Registry of yachts was introduced, as well as a number of benefits for their owners and operators, some of which could be considered as a kind of legalization of the so-called black charter. Yachts that are not registered for rent in Montenegro have the right to take on board four times the maximum number of persons for which the boat is registered during their stay in our waters.
"Regulations of Montenegro on yachts, which improve the environment for the development of the yachting industry, allow several changes to the list of passengers and crew members during the season, and allow flexibility when boarding and disembarking from charter yachts in Montenegro," writes the Porto Montenegro website.
The Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism did not want to answer questions about the economic benefits for Montenegro from the current application of the Law on Yachts, how many citizens are employed in the nautical industry and how many taxes and contributions have been collected.
"That's a question for the Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs," Milica Lekić, PR of the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism, told "Vijesta".
Draconian punishments in Croatia
Only ships registered in that or the member states of the European Union can engage in chartering in Croatia. Vessels flying the flag of third countries can only do so if they have previously received permission for cabotage - internal traffic between Croatian ports, which is almost an "impossible mission".
Charter operators in Croatia are obliged to submit a list of crew and passengers electronically to the central database of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs for each of their vessels.
The minister can annually issue a maximum number of such approvals in the amount of 5 percent of the total number of vessels on which the accommodation service was provided in the previous calendar year.
The total number of such vessels is published by the Croatian Ministry of Maritime Affairs on its official website no later than January 31 of the current year.
Charter operators in Croatia are obliged to submit a list of crew and passengers for each of their vessels electronically to the central database of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, no later than the moment the vessel sets sail.
They must have a copy of that list on the yacht during the voyage, so it is very easy for the Croatian maritime and port authorities, which are connected to the information system with the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, to detect any possible abuse and attempt to smuggle passengers.
Penalties for black chartering in Croatia are draconian, fines, or confiscation of the ship.
They don't know who's renting, but it's nothing suspicious
The Ministry of Maritime Affairs does not have information on how much foreign yachts chartered in Montenegro paid for vignettes.
There is no data on the number of companies and entrepreneurs who registered, but it is said that since the beginning of 2012, the Navigation Safety Inspection has found irregularities in nine cases during the inspection of yachts for rent and charged 6.050 euros.
The Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism, led by Branimir Gvozdenović, did not comment on our question as to whether, according to them, there is reason to suspect the existence of a very pronounced gray economy and tax eviction in the area of yacht charters in Montenegro.
However, a direct and confident answer came only from the Ministry of Finance.
"The area of providing yacht charter services is the subject of the attention of the competent inspection bodies, according to whose reports... no significant irregularities were recorded in this area," announced the cabinet of Minister Radoj Žugić.
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