EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
CUSTOMS ACT 1901
CUSTOMS REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
STATUTORY RULES 1989 NO. 409
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR INDUSTRY, TECHNOLOGY AND COMMERCE
Section 270 of the Customs Act 1901 (“the Act”) provides in part that “The Governor-General may make regulations not inconsistent with this Act prescribing all matters which by this Act are required or permitted to be prescribed or as may be necessary or convenient to be prescribed for giving effect to this Act ...”
Regulation 126 of the Customs Regulations (“the Regulations”) prescribes the circumstances in which a refund rebate or remission of Customs duty may be paid.
Background
In February 1989 the Government authorised the introduction of Customs and Excise Regulations to allow, with suitable controls, the refund of duty on petroleum products where they are returned to Customs control, to effectively prevent the double-payment of duty on the same product. It is quite common for duty-paid petroleum products to be returned to customs control,
• where it could not be used after leaving the distribution terminal, for example, where a road tanker returns to the terminal at the end of a day’s deliveries with undelivered product on board, or
• where it becomes contaminated by accidental mixing with another product, for example, when delivering from a road tanker to underground storage, the operator mistakenly puts gasoline on top of diesel; or where the vapours of duty-paid product are captured and returned to the distribution terminal.
The Statutory Rules insert a new refund circumstance (paragraph 126(1)(p)) in respect of duty-paid petrol when that petrol is returned to a warehouse or to a manufacturer, to cater for all of the above circumstances.
In addition, the Statutory Rules provide for certain requirements to be met by an applicant for refund under the new circumstance (new regulation 128F), including record-keeping obligations to enable the volume of petrol and the duty paid on it to be readily ascertained.
Details of the regulations are as follows:
regulation 1: is a formal machinery provision, to refer to the Customs Regulations as the “Principal Regulations”.
regulation 2: amends regulation 126 of the Principal Regulations, as follows:
- paragraphs (a) and (b) provide for minor technical amendments to subparagraphs 126(n)(ii) and 126(o)(ii) to allow for the inclusion of a new refund circumstance;
- paragraph (c) inserts a new paragraph 126(1)(p) to provide a refund circumstance in respect of duty-paid petrol which has been returned in whole or in part to a licensed warehouse under the Customs Act 1901 or to a licensed manufacturer under the Excise Act 1901;
- paragraph (d) inserts a new subregulation 126(2) defining the terms “manufacturer” and “petrol” for the purposes of the new paragraph 126(1)(p).
regulation 3: inserts a new regulation 128F into the Principal Regulations, which prescribes the control conditions for refunds of petrol under the new circumstance:
- new subregulation 128F(1) places certain obligations on an applicant for refund under the new circumstance as follows:
• the applicant must keep such records as would enable the authorised officer to determine and verify both the volume of petrol returned and the fact that duty has been paid on such petrol (new paragraph 128F(1)(a));
• where the petrol is returned because it is contaminated (as defined in new subregulation 128F(5)), notice of the proposed return must be given to and received by an authorised officer prior to the return (new subparagraph 128F(1)(b)(i)), and the composition of that petrol must be determined by analysis (new subparagraph 128F(1)(b)(ii))
- new subregulation 128F(2) provides how the composition of the contaminated petrol is to be determined for the purposes of the condition imposed by subparagraph 128F(1)(b)(ii).
- new subregulation 128F(4) specifies that the amount of any refund is based on the duty rate that applied to the returned petrol at the time that the petrol was originally entered for home consumption.
- new subregulation 128F(5) defines the terms ‘authorised officer’, ‘contaminated petrol’, ‘manufacturer’, and ‘petrol’ for the purposes of the new regulation.