The Finnish government wants to cut state support for shipping by the equivalent of 400 million kronor. The shipping company Viking Line is very critical and is open to the possibility of re-flagged the ships to Sweden instead.
It is the Ministry of Finance that has proposed a saving of 36 million euros, approximately 400 million kronor, according to the newspaper. New Åland.
According to Johanna Boijer-Svahnström, information director at Viking Line, the savings would affect all 2,000 employees in the form of new conditions and employment contracts, as well as lost tax revenue for Åland.
”"It's a cold shower. We have recently reflagged two ships, Cinderella and XPRS, which means that all five wholly owned ships are under the Finnish flag. That would mean the most suffering for us as a company, and it would probably mean drastic measures. One measure would, hypothetically, be to reflagged the ships to Sweden," she says.
”"In Finland we call it support, but it's about us getting back the taxes and social security contributions we've paid in. If we move to Sweden, we no longer pay that money, so the state doesn't save anything on this."”
The largest owner of Viking Line is the Swedish financial tycoon Jakob Johansson through his holding company Maelir, which controls 21.8 percent of the shares, according to the ownership data service Holdings.
Source: DI.SE
