P.R. Laws tit. 23, § 6853
The incentives to cruise ships companies or operators established in this chapter shall be the following:
(a) Destination incentive. — Two dollars and ninety-five cents ($2.95) shall be contributed for every passenger who arrives at the Port of San Juan and pays the M-1-6 head passenger tax of thirteen dollars and twenty-five cents ($13.25); establishing that any cut in said head passenger tax shall reduce the incentive herein provided in equal proportion.
(b) Home port incentive. — One dollar ($1) shall be contributed per passenger for the cruise ships that use the Port of San Juan as well as any other port within the jurisdiction of Puerto Rico as home port for a minimum of twenty (20) days within a period of six (6) consecutive months and which pay the applicable head passenger tax.
(c) Port time incentive for ships in transit. — The amount of eighty-five cents ($0.85) shall be contributed per passenger in cruise ships that dock in San Juan as well as in any other port within the jurisdiction of Puerto Rico for a minimum of eight (8) hours and which pay the applicable head passenger tax.
(d) Passenger volume incentive per corporation. — The amount of two dollars ($2) shall be contributed per passenger, from ten thousand (10,000) to one hundred and thirty-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine (139,999) passengers, who arrives at the Port of San Juan as well as any other port within the jurisdiction of Puerto Rico and pays the applicable head passenger tax. From one hundred and forty thousand passengers (140,000) and over, the contributions shall be four dollars and fifty cents ($4.50) per passenger who pays the head passenger tax.
(e) Incentive for goods. — Every cruise ship that docks at the Port of San Juan as well as any other port within the jurisdiction of Puerto Rico shall receive a payment equal to ten percent (10%) of the expenditures for goods purchased in Puerto Rico and an additional five percent (5%) on the purchase of products from or manufactured in Puerto Rico, as certified by the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company and the Department of Agriculture.
The cruise ship owners or operators that comply with these provisions shall receive these benefits after presenting evidence, to the satisfaction of said agencies, that the purchases were made from merchants duly certified by the Puerto Rico Trade and Export Company and who are duly registered in the Merchant’s Register of the Department of the Treasury. For this, the representatives or agents of the cruise ship lines shall submit to such entities the invoices giving evidence of these facts.
(f) The incentives program shall be extended to fiscal year 2010-11. To the extent that by June 30, 2011, the volume of passengers is increased by twenty percent (20%) on the basis of one million three hundred and eighty thousand (1,380,000) passengers, this incentive shall be extended until June 30, 2014.
(g) It is hereby expressly provided that the incentives listed herein shall be exclusively applied to those cruise ships that use the Port of San Juan as well as any other port within the jurisdiction of Puerto Rico, except for subsection (a) of this section, which shall apply exclusively to the Port of San Juan.
(h) The incentives herein provided shall be paid by the Puerto Rico Tourism Company to the corresponding company, operator or agent within a term of not more than thirty (30) days after the invoices to claim the incentives listed herein are submitted; Provided, That should the Tourism Company have any misgivings regarding any item of the invoice thus submitted, these shall not constitute an impediment for the payment of all other items not in controversy. Likewise, the Tourism Company shall be responsible for notifying the claimant within said thirty (30) day period, any objection to an item submitted for payment and the reasons therefor.
History —Aug. 25, 2005, No. 76, § 5; June 21, 2008, No. 99, § 1.