Regulation on Implementing the Law of Ship Health Tax

Date of Official Gazette:

03.03.1996
Official Gazette No.

22569

FIRST PART
Aim, Scope, Basis and Definitions

Aim
Article 1-The aim of this Regulation is to arranger the procedures and principles related with the implementation of Law of Ship Health Tax dated 6.11.1981 and numbered 2548.

Scope
Article 2-This Regulation covers the ships navigating on Turkish ports, coming from the ports of foreign countries to Turkish ports, going to the ports of foreign countries from Turkish ports or passing transit in the Turkish Straits and in the MarmaraSea.

Basis
Article 3-This regulation has been prepared in accordance with the Law of Ship Health Tax, Article 8 changed with the Law numbered 2928.

Definitions
Article 4-The definitions in this Regulation has the following meanings;

a) General Directorate: General Directorate of Borders and Coast Health, Ministry of Health,

b) Ship: Regardless of its name, tonnage and purpose of use, the sea vehicle which can sail on the sea and inland waters with some means other than oars

c) Private yacht: the sea vehicle constructed in the type of yacht, used with sport and touring purposes, with passengers no more than 12, and defined a private yacht in the tonnage documents,

d) Tourist Ship: the ships carrying passenger with touristic purposes, not used for other commercial operations, and not carrying extra passenger or load out of purpose,

e) Complication: The contact of a ship with the land while any materials or the passengers are got in or off in the port,

f) Voyage: the navigation of a ship in the direction from the first Turkish port to the last port,

g) Turkish Straits: the passage area of ships in İstanbulStrait, ÇanakkaleStrait and MarmaraSea and the coast line surrounding this area,

h) Transit ship: the ship coming from a foreign country and using the Turkish Territorial Sea, but without a contact with any Turkish port; going to a foreign country by passing without any complication in İstanbul Strait, Marmara Sea, and Çanakkale Strait on the area of straits,

ı) Arrival port: the port where the transportation by sea is ended,

j) Cabotage right: carrying and transporting load and passengers from one point to another in the Turkish coasts with the ships with Turkish flag, carrying out the services such as towage, pilotage on the costs and in the ports and all port services, and the right of commerce by sea in Turkey,

k) Port with a bad bill of health: The port in the region where one of the diseases reported as being subjected to quarantine by the International Health Organization is epidemic,

l) Ship with a bad bill of health: the ship in which there is a passenger or a seafarer suffering from an epidemic disease determined by the International Health Organization,

m) Protection place: the place where all parts and load, crew and passengers of a ship with an epidemic disease in are purified from microbes and agents in order to protect the country from epidemic diseases, and the place where the patients and porters are quarantined, diagnosed and treated,

n) Free Pratique: Generally, determining and documenting that there is no sanitary drawback in the complication of the ship with the land in our ports and coasts by examining the sanitary situation of the ship,

o) Clean Pratique: By examining the sanitary situation of a ship coming from a port with a bad bill of health or being a ship with a bad bill of health, determining and documenting that there is no sanitary drawback in the complication of the ship with the land in our ports and coasts,

p) Visa: The authorized employees processes with official seal, signed and dated documents the information on the sanitary situation on the port and its environment and whether there is an epidemic disease in this port; health of ship’s crew and passenger during staying in the port, the operation carried out by loading and unloading in the port, and the numbers of receipt, amount of tax and similar information,

r) Ships with Scheduled Voyages:(official gazette dated 27.08.2003 and numbered 25212) The ships carrying passengers and passenger-vehicles for public interest and of which arrival and departure times and ports of call are determined in advance.

SECOND PART
Ship Health Tax and Booklet

FIRST SECTION
Free and Transit Health Tax

Free Health Tax
Article 5-Excluding the ships passing transit, free health tax is taken for each net tons from the ships mentioned in Article 2 in Turkish ports.

Tariff of Free Health Tax
Article 6-Free health tax is determined with the tariff to become effective by the Ministry of Health, by getting the opinions of Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Finance at the beginning of every financial year and shall be valid for that year.

Place for Paying the Free Health Tax
Article 7-Free health tax is paid in the first departure port for the ships working between the Turkish ports and leaving from Turkish ports; and during the transactions of departure in the first arrival port for the ships coming from the foreign countries.

Special Discount for Free Health Tax
Article 8- The ships having cabotage right, the touristic ships carrying only tourists and not performing commercial works and the ships carrying out scientific researches pays the free health tax with a special discount in a ratio to be determined with a tariff mentioned in Article 6 by.

Transit Health Tax
Article 9-Transit health tax is taken from the ships passing transit on İstanbulStrait, MarmaraSea and ÇanakkaleStrait according to the provisions of Montreux Agreement.

Spoiling the Nature of being Transit
Article 10- If a ship paying the transit health tax after declaring that it will pass Çanakkale Strait, Marmara Sea and İstanbul Strait transit comes to a port in the Turkish Straits or Marmara Sea or anchors to a Turkish port other that the ones in Turkish Straits and Marmara Sea without going a foreign port, stays for more than 48 hours by anchoring within the Area of İstanbul Ports in order to meet the obligatory needs and if the passengers get in and off the ship, its nature of being transit is spoiled. The transit health tax paid before is completed to the free health tax.

If the transit nature of a ship using the right of transit rotation is spoiled, the full of free health tax is paid.

Conditions not spoiling the Transit Nature
Article11-The ships being subjected to obligatory transit transaction are not allowed to be in contact with the land by no means.
In the ships being subjected to optional transit transaction in İstanbul Strait, Marmara Sea, and Çanakkale Strait;
a) If an expert or repairman is brought to examine and repair a failure occurred in the ships,
b) (1) If the shipmaster or a related personnel goes ashore for meeting an obligatory physical or mechanical need such as supplying food or fuel and contacts with the agent for the agency transactions of ship,
c) (1) If it becomes necessary to change the seafarer due to obligatory reasons such as death, illness, annulment of contract or vacation; under the permission and companionship of the doctor and sentinel employee of the coast health inspection center, if the personnel approved also by the port administration is changed, the transit nature of ship is not spoiled. If these situations and reasons constituting an exception in terms of spoiling the transit nature continue for more than 48 hours, the provisions of Article 10 are applied.
If a ship navigating in the TurkishStraits and MarmaraSea by paying the transit health tax arrives a Turkish port due to force majeure reasons such as bad weather, machine failure, accident and fire, the transit nature of this ship is nor spoiled.
Considering that the transit nature is not spoiled according to the provisions of this article do not constitute an obstacle for carrying out the health controls, works and transactions envisaged by the Regulation as per Article 35.

Period of Exception in Transit Health Tax
Article 12- If the transit ships returns from the direction they go in six months and presents the receipt of tax or other documents during their entries to the Turkish Straits, the health tax is not paid again. However, if the ships do not present the receipt of tax or other document they are obliged to present, the health tax must be collected. In this case, the right of return is obtained through the receipt of tax paid secondary. The six-month-period in the first paragraph ends at 24.00 on the last day of month beginning from the date when the receipt is written. During the period of exception of the ship passing transit on the TurkishStraits and MarmaraSea, if the ship starts to a voyage being subjected to free health tax from the ports of foreign countries to Turkish ships, the right of transit return is not removed.

Exception from Ship Health Tax
Article 13- The war ships, the ships on an official visit, the ships entering to the Turkish ports due to bad weather conditions, machine failures, accidents and fires, and the ships with a tonnage up to 50 net tons are not required to pay health tax.
If the ships which are taken away by drawing after losing the nature of operating due to strike, burn and sink proofs these situations via the documents to be received from official bodies of Turkey, they are not required to pay the health tax.

SECOND SECTION
Health Tax according to the nature of Ship’s Voyage

Contrary Voyage
Article 14- If the ship starts to a voyage in the next direction from the first Turkish port and then enters to another Turkish port while returning to the previous direction by leaving the navigation direction, this voyage is deemed as a contrary voyage and a start of new voyage. So the health tax is taken again for the new voyage.

Transverse Voyage
Article 15- If the ship enters to another Turkish port without returning to the back direction before the arrival port in the direction of departure, this voyage is deemed as a transverse voyage; but not considered as a start of new voyage; so the health tax is not taken again due to such reason.

Double Voyage
Article 16- If a foreign or Turkish ship coming from a foreign port and passing through the Turkish Straits as being subjected to the free health tax goes to a foreign port by using the Turkish Straits or starts to a voyage to another Turkish port, this voyage is considered as a double voyage and the amount of free health tax is calculated twofold. However, if the ship starting to another Turkish port has the cabotage right, the health tax is calculated with discount as of this voyage just started. If the ships starting to a voyage to another Turkish port and having the cabotage right enters to another Turkish port in a further direction from the arrival port, this situation is considered as the continuation of the voyage. But if continues in a reverse direction, this is considered as a new voyage. If it enters to a foreign port in a reverse direction of the arrival port, this is considered as the continuation of voyage. If it enters to a foreign port without entering any Turkish port in the reverse direction, this is considered as the continuation. However the discount of cabotage right, which is benefited in the first port, is collected separately. If the ship enters to a foreign port by passing through the TurkishStraits and MarmaraSea, this is considered as a new voyage; and the free health tax is calculated according to this voyage.

Health Tax for the Voyages to the Gulf Ports
Article 17- If the ships goes to a gulf in the direction of voyage and continues to its route in the same direction after staying in the port of this gulf, this is not considered as a new voyage. So the health tax is not collected due to the leave from this gulf port.
The mutual or contrary voyages between the ports in the gulf are considered as a new voyage and subjected to free health tax. However the voyages between the quays in the same port are not subjected to the health tax.

Health Tax for the Ships making Scheduled Voyages
Article 17

a)(official gazette dated 27.08.2003 and numbered 25212) If the ships making scheduled voyages between the ports of Turkish Straits starts to a voyage on the starting port and returns to the same port on the same day, these kinds of voyages are considered as a single voyage. So the ships making scheduled voyages pay only one tax daily.

Determining the Tonnage on the basis of the amount of Health Tax
Article 18- In calculating the amount of health tax, the booklet of “Tonnage Certificate” arranged according to the provisions of “International Tonnage Contract for Measuring the tonnages of Ships” dated 1969 is given. The annual cost of ship health tax is equal to the non-discounted amount of health tax of this ship. However, this amount cannot be lesser than the one required to be paid by a ship with 100 net tones.

Among the ships obliged to get the annual booklet of ship health tax, the ones with a tonnage with more than 50 net tons also pay the health tax according to the conditions of voyage.

Giving the Booklet of Ship Health
Article 19-The annual booklet of ship health is given to the ships with a tonnage up to 250 net tons working between the Turkish ports and having the cabotage right. The cost of annual booklet of ship health is equal to the non-discounted amount of health tax of this ship. However, this amount cannot be lesser than the one required to be paid by a ship with 100 net tones. Among the ships obliged to get the annual booklet of ship health tax, the ones with a tonnage with more than 50 net tons also pay the health tax according to the conditions of voyage.

Validity Period of Booklet of Ship Health
Article 20-The validity of annual booklet of ship health is one year beginning from the date it is given. The health booklet of which validity period is expired is renewed with the new one. The pages are added to the health booklets of which visa parts are filled before one year free of charge. If the ship owner demands, instead of adding pages to the booklet, the annual booklet of ship health is given in payment for its cost. If the booklet is lost due to any reason before the expiry date, the new one must be obligatorily bought.

THIRD PART
Financial, Penal and Miscellaneous Provisions

FIRST SECTION
Accrual, Collection, and Payment

Accruing and Collecting the Costs of Ship Health Tax, Health Booklet and Penalty for delay
Article 21- the employees of coast health inspection center accrues and collects the costs of ship health tax, health booklet and penalty for delay. The employees on duty for accruing and collecting these costs are responsible for the accurateness of the transactions they carry out, and for delivering the collected amounts and with their receipts completely to the accountant paymaster. The accountant paymaster gives them to the accountant in accordance with the provisions pf Law of General Accounting numbered 1050. The deficiencies and irregularities determined as a result of the examination carried out by the accountant and other authorities are under the responsibility of the employee carrying out these transactions with the accountant paymaster.

Cash Payment
Article 22-The ships passing transit through the TurkishStraits and MarmaraSea pay the health tax in Turkish liras. The ships with no Turkish liras and no agency in Turkey pay the cost in convertible money of a foreign country. If the ship health tax determined in Turkish liras is collected with convertible foreign money, in calculating the cost of collected foreign money, the current effective rate of exchange of Central Bank of Republic of Turkey is taken as the basis. The foreign money is changed with Turkish liras on the basis of official rate of exchange on the bank of accountant or accountant paymaster of General Directorate and then accounted by adding the document received from the bank in relation with the transaction to the receipt.

Payment with Bonds
Article 23- The ships passing transit through the TurkishStraits and the MarmaraSea may pay the health tax with bonds in the coast health inspection centers in Çanakkale and Büyükdere in accordance with the contract to be signed between their agency and General Directorate or through the agency they are dependent upon.

Payment with Check
Article 24- The ships subjected to free and transit health tax may pay the costs with blocked check in Turkey and in front of the banks.
The checks arranged to the name and account of customers by the bank branches are also accepted as the blocked checks. In the implementation of the articles in this section, the private financing institutions are also considered as banks.

Bond Contract
Article 25- For the ships passing transit through the Straits and the MarmaraSea, it is optional to sign a bond contract between the agencies of these ships and the General Directorate.
In case of a bond contract, the agency is responsible for paying the health tax and the legal and contractual costs of delay for the ships reported to the General Directorate and being under the liability of this agency.