Cruising Association applauds DEKPA scrapping

Greece has announced the scrapping of the DEKPA cruising permit (the document all boat owners must have stamped annually and carry with all ship’s papers) in a draft bill for which consultations close on 27 February 2020. The bill will be voted on shortly afterwards and becomes law within one month of being officially published.

The DEKPA was never a popular imposition with either the Greek authorities nor the visiting yachtsmen, putting regulations in place with requirements that were sometimes difficult to meet. For example, getting documents stamped on due dates when present in the country, and being subject to hefty fines.

The Cruising Association (CA) has campaigned since the advent of the E-TEPAI cruising tax, which effectively duplicates the vessel’s information online, so making the DEKPA superfluous.

The decision to scrap DEKPA will also be welcomed by the Port Police. Importantly though, there will be an obligation for all skippers to keep a detailed and signed log of all crew, logging all arrivals and departures, and noting any visa details where required.

With the UK leaving the EU on 31 December 2020, UK vessels, even those which are VAT paid, will have to apply for a Transit Log (TL) from Customs. This performs a similar function to a DEKPA, but for non-EU flagged vessels, and the CA views this as also being somewhat superfluous, increasing the workload of Customs. The CA is therefore campaigning to have this scrapped and for other facilities to be put in place in respect of immigration requirements.