Banking (Foreign Exchange) Regulations (Amendment) (Cth)

STATUTORY RULES.

1954. No. 96.

 

REGULATIONS UNDER SECTION 29 OF THE BANKING ACT 1945-1953.*

WHEREAS by section 29 of the Banking Act 1945-1953 it is provided that, where the Governor-General is satisfied that it is expedient so to do, for the protection of the currency or of the public credit of the Commonwealth, or in order to conserve, in the national interest, the foreign exchange resources of the Commonwealth, he may make regulations, not inconsistent with that Act, making provision for and in relation to the control of foreign exchange and, in particular, but without limiting the generality of the foregoing, for or in relation to certain matters specified in that section:

And whereas I, the Governor-General in and over the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, am satisfied that it is expedient, in order to conserve, in the national interest, the foreign exchange resources of the Commonwealth, to make the following Regulations:

Now therefore I, the Governor-General aforesaid, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, hereby make the following Regulations under section 29 of the Banking Act 1945-1953.

Dated this first day of September, 1954.

W. J. SLIM

Governor-General.

By His Excellency’s Command,

(Sgd.) A. W. FADDEN

Treasurer.

 

Amendments of the Banking (Foreign Exchange) Regulations.

Definitions.

1. Regulation 4 of the Banking (Foreign Exchange) Regulations is amended by inserting after the definition of “sterling area” the following definition:—

“ ‘the American Account area’ means—

(a) the United States of America and its dependencies;

(b) the islands in the Pacific Ocean which—

(i) were under the sovereignty of, or were administered by, Japan immediately before the war that commenced on the eighth day of December, 1941; and

(ii) are administered by the United States of America; and

 

* Notified in the Commonwealth Gazette on  1954.

  Statutory Rules 1946, No. 191, as amended by Statutory Rules 1947, Nos. 65 and 102; 1948, Nos. 39 and 165; 1950, No. 46; 1952, Nos. 15 and 80; and 1953, No. 24.

3463.—Price 3d. 9/18.8.1954.

 

(c) the Republic of the Philippines, Bolivia, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, the Republic of Honduras, Liberia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador and Venezuela;”.

2.—(1.) Regulation 7 of the Banking (Foreign Exchange) Regulations is repealed and the following regulation inserted in its stead:—

Control of money orders.

“7.—(1.) A person shall not take or send money out of Australia by means of a money order issued in Australia and payable out of Australia otherwise than in accordance with the provisions of this regulation.

“(2.) Money shall not be so taken or sent out of Australia except—

(a) to a person permanently resident out of Australia;

(b) tothe Government, or an authority or a fund established by the Government, of any country; or

(c) to a Court.

“(3.) Money shall not be so taken or sent out of Australia to a person permanently resident out of Australia—

(a)except for the sole use and benefit of that person or of another person permanently resident out of Australia; or

(b) in or towards payment for goods which, at the date on which the application for the money order is made, are not excepted from the application of the Customs (Import Licensing) Regulations.

“(4.) The amount of money so taken or sent out of Australia by any one person—

(a) to a person or persons in a place or places in the American Account area or in the Dominion of Canada shall not exceed in the aggregate Five pounds in any one month; and

(b)to a person or persons in any other place or places shall not exceed in the aggregate Ten pounds in any one week.

“(5.) An application for the issue of each money order payable out of Australia shall be made in accordance with a form approved by the Postmaster-General.

“(6.) For the purposes of this regulation, ‘person permanently resident out of Australia’ includes—

(a) an association of persons each of whom is permanently resident out of Australia; and

(b) a body corporate incorporated out of Australia,

but does not include any other association of persons or body corporate.”.

(2.) This regulation shall come into operation on the first day of September, 1954.

Acquisition of foreign currency.

3. Regulation 13 of the Banking (Foreign Exchange) Regulations is amended—

(a) by adding at the end of sub-regulation (1.) the words “within the period prescribed by this regulation”; and

 

(b) by inserting after sub-regulation (2.) the following sub-regulation:—

“(2a.) The period within which foreign currency to which sub-regulation (1.) of this regulation applies is to be sold to the Bank or to an agent of the Bank is—

(a)except in a case to which the next succeeding paragraph applies, thirty days after the date of commencement of this sub-regulation or the date on which the person having power to sell the foreign currency first has that power, whichever is the later date; or

(b) in the case of foreign currency to which sub-regulation (1.) of this regulation becomes applicable, after the commencement of this sub-regulation, as a result of the expiration of the period referred to in paragraph (c) of the last preceding sub-regulation, thirty days after the date on which the first-mentioned sub-regulation first becomes applicable to that foreign currency.”.

Bank to be named in shipping documents.

4. Regulation 24 of the Banking (Foreign Exchange) Regulations is amended by inserting in sub-regulation (1.), after the word “Minister”, the words “or the Bank”.

Offences.

5. Regulation 42 of the Banking (Foreign Exchange) Regulations is amended by omitting sub-regulation (2.) and inserting in its stead the following sub-regulation:—

“(2.) In addition to any other punishment, a court may, if it thinks fit, order the forfeiture of gold, Australian currency, foreign currency or securities in respect of which an offence against these Regulations has been committed.”.

 

Printed for the Government of the Commonwealth by A. J. Arthur at the Government Printing Office, Canberra.