Government is refusing to accept factoring invoices of companies which supply the Government Health Procurement Services to control the national deficit, The Malta Business Weekly has learnt.
The issue that government is refusing to accept factored invoices was first highlighted a few weeks ago by The Malta Independent on Sunday. At the time, pharmaceutical importers were subsequently assured by government that it had agreed in principle to accept factoring for all pharmaceutical importers.
This newspaper is informed that various pharmaceutical importers have “sold” their invoices to HSBC Bank Malta in an attempt to ease their cash flow problems following a credit period of 150 days imposed by government. Moreover, payments by the Government Health Procurement Services entity, previously known as the Government Pharmaceutical Services, were until recently few and far between.
Following intense lobbying it is understood that HSBC accepted the 150 days credit period demanded by government instead of the maximum 120 days.
In the process, it is also believed that the bank wrote a couple of heavy worded letters to government, which however failed to elicit the expected response.
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Pharmaceutical Process Equipment
