EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
ISSUED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR THE ARTS, TOURISM AND TERRITORIES
A.C.T. Self-Government (Consequential Provisions) Act 1988
A.C.T. Self-Government (Consequential Provisions) Regulations (Amendment) 1989 No. 391
Subsection 31(1) of the A.C.T. Self-Government (Consequential Provisions) Act 1988 provides that the Governor-General may make regulations making provision (including provision by way of modifications of an Act) in relation to:
(a) any matter arising from, connected with or consequential upon the establishment of the Territory as a body politic under the Crown; or
(b) any matter arising from, connected with or consequential upon the conversion of a law into an enactment.
Subsection 31(2) provides that regulations made under section 31(1) may be expressed to commence on and from a date earlier than the making of the regulations not being a date earlier than Self-Government Day.
The Regulations provide for the modification of the Sales Tax (Exemptions and Classifications) Act 1935.
The purpose of the Regulations is to enable the Commonwealth to treat the ACT like the States and the Northern Territory for the purposes of the Sales Tax (Exemption and Classifications) Act 1935.
The details of the Regulations are as follows:
Regulation 1 provides that the Regulations shall be taken to have commenced on 11 May 1989, the date of Self-Government in the Australian Capital Territory.
Regulation 2 provides that the modifications to the Sales Tax (Exemptions and Classifications) Act 1935 are inserted in Schedule 1 of the ACT Self-Government (Consequential Provisions) Regulations.
The Schedule provides that Item 74 in the First Schedule to the Sales Tax (Exemptions and Classifications) Act 1935 will be modified to provide that goods for official use (whether as goods or in some other form), and not for sale, by a department of the Government of the ACT, or an authority which is completely controlled by, and the expenditure of which is exclusively borne by, the Government of the ACT shall be exempt from sales tax, provided that, in the case of goods for the use of a department or an authority of the Government of the ACT, an arrangement has been made between the Governor-General and the Chief Minister of the ACT, for the collection and payment by the ACT of sales tax upon the sale value of goods sold by the Government of the ACT, and by every such authority established under the law of the ACT, in the conduct of an enterprise which, in the opinion of the Commissioner of Taxation, is a trading enterprise.