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1998-1999-2000-2001
THE PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
DRIED VINE FRUITS (RATE OF PRIMARY INDUSTRY (CUSTOMS) CHARGE) VALIDATION BILL 2001
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
(Circulated by the authority of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Senator the Hon Judith Troeth)
GENERAL OUTLINE
The Bill
seeks to amend the Primary Industries (Customs) Charges Regulations
1999 to clarify the rate of charge intended to be struck on dried vine
fruits that were exported from 1 January 2000. The Bill validates
regulations that were established to retrospectively reduce the rate of export
charge on dried vine fruits exported in that period.
The Dried Vine Fruits (Rate of Primary Industry (Customs) Charge)
Validation Bill 2001 has the effect of reducing the charge paid by dried
fruit processors for the purposes of marketing dried fruit in Australia and
internationally. The Bill proposes to validate regulations that purported to
fix retrospectively the rate of the primary industry customs charge on dried
vine fruits, and for related purposes.
Up until 30 June 1999 there was a
customs charge imposed on dried vine fruits under the Horticultural Export
Charge Act 1987 [the old Act]. The Primary Industries Levies and Charges
Collection (Dried Vine Fruits) Regulations set the rate for the charge at $10.00
per tonne.
The old Act was repealed on the commencement of the
Primary Industries (Customs) Charges Act 1999 [the new Act]. The repeal
of the old Act would normally have had the effect that regulations made under it
(ie the Primary Industries Levies and Charges Collection (Dried Vine Fruits)
Regulations) would cease to be in force. However, the Regulations were kept in
force by transitional arrangements under the new Act.
It was decided to
reduce the rate of charge on dried vine fruits from $10.00 per tonne to $7.00
per tonne with effect from 1 January 2000. The method chosen was to repeal the
Primary Industries Levies and Charges Collection (Dried Vine Fruits) Regulations
and amend the Primary Industries Customs Charges Regulations 1999 to impose a
charge of $7.00 per tonne. However, since the amendments and repeals were
carried out some time after 1 January 2000 the amendments and repeals were
necessarily retrospective.
Under normal circumstances, the regulations
imposing the new levy or charge would be invalid because of subsection 48(2) of
the Acts Interpretation Act 1901. That legislation invalidates any
regulation that is expressed to take effect at a time before it is gazetted and
operates to the disadvantage of any person other than the Commonwealth.
However, prior to the development of the regulations amending the rate
of charge, the Office of Legislative Drafting (OLD) provided advice to the
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry to the effect that in this
case, the proposed regulations did not contravene the Acts Interpretation Act
1901. Subsequent advice has, however, raised concerns about the validity of
the regulations. Accordingly, the OLD has advised that the prudent course is to
validate the regulations via this proposed Bill. This misdescription has only
been notified recently and thus no amending regulations were sought earlier as
was the case with the excise levy. Therefore, the operative rate of charge has
not been reduced, as was thought, so it is necessary for this Bill to commence
from 1 January 2000..
As the intent of this Bill is to reduce the rate of charge struck on dried vine fruits, from 1 January 2000, the Levies Revenue Service has attempted to minimise any impact on levy payers whilst the situation has remained unresolved and accordingly the actual rate of charge applied to collections was reduced to $7.00 per tonne from the original gazettal in September 2000. Accordingly, the monetary size of any refunds will be minimal.
1. Short title
The
short title of the Bill is the Dried Vine Fruits (Rate of Primary Industry
(Customs) Charge) Validation Act 2001.
The commencement date is set to be on the day that it receives Royal Assent
Clause 3 provides that subsection 48(2) of the Acts Interpretation Act
1901 is taken not to have applied to Schedule 1 to the Primary Industries
(Customs) Charges Amendment Regulations 2000 (No.1) (Statutory Rules 2000
No.236). This ensures that the reduction in the levy rate could be
applied prior to amendments to the regulations being gazetted. The purpose of
this bill is to validate amendments to the regulations which facilitated a
reduction in the export charge for dried fruit from $10.00 to $7.00 per tonne
from 1 January 2000.
The reduction in the charge rate is advantageous
to levypayers and the only rights adversely effected are those of the
Commonwealth in accordance with subsection 48(2) of the Acts Interpretation
Act 1901.