EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
CUSTOMS ACT 1901
CUSTOMS REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
STATUTORY RULES 1990 NO. 6
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR LAND TRANSPORT AND SHIPPING SUPPORT FOR AND ON BEHALF OF THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR SCIENCE, CUSTOMS AND SMALL BUSINESS
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 ...”
Paragraph 36(2A)(a) of the Act, which was introduced via amendments contained in Section 6 of the Customs and Excise Legislation Amendment Act (No. 4) 1990, (Act No. 5 of 1990, which received the Royal Assent on 17 January 1990) provides a head of power for regulations to prescribe that an entry be able to be processed by a specified computer system used by the Customs for the purpose of handling such entries.
The Statutory Rules (paragraph (b)) insert a new subregulation 36(2) to prescribe that entries under subsection 36(1) of the Act must be able to be processed by the computer system used by the Customs as at 1 February 1990. The amendment will mean that both import and export entries prepared with the aid of a computer must be able to be processed by the Customs computer system. This amendment will cover the COMPILE system utilised for import entries and the new electronic initiatives being implemented for export entries.
As a consequence of the amendment in paragraph (b) specifying the computer system as one used by the Customs as at 1 February 1990, paragraph (a) amends paragraph (a) of regulation 36 to remove the earlier specification in that regulation of a computer that is the property of the Commonwealth.