EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1989 NO 244
Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy
DRIED VINE FRUITS EQUALIZATION LEVY ACT 1978
DRIED VINE FRUITS EQUALIZATION LEVY
REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Subsection 9(1) of the Dried Vine Fruits Equalization Levy Act 1978 (the Act) empowers the Governor-General to make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters required as or permitted by the Act to be prescribed or necessary to or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.
Subsection 9(3) provides that the Governor-General shall take into consideration any relevant recommendations made by the Australian Dried Fruits Corporation (the Corporation) pursuant to subsection 9(2) with respect to regulations to be made to fix a rate of levy for dried fruit of a specified kind produced during a season.
Section 5 of the Act imposes a levy on dried fruit produced in Australia for the purposes of equalizing export and domestic returns. This levy is applied to specified kinds of dried fruit used for human consumption in Australia in a season and the proceeds are disbursed at a later date to producers in the form of an equalization payment over the total amount of fruit of that
kind produced in the season.
Subsection 6(1) of the Act provides that the regulations may, at any time during a season, fix a rate of levy in respect of dried fruit of a specified kind produced during that season. Subsection 6(2) of the Act provides that the rate of equalization levy set by regulations for a specified kind of dried fruit produced in a season shall be a rate agreed to by the Minister after consultation with, and consideration of estimates provided by, the Corporation. Such estimates relate to the average export return, the volumes of fruit produced and the proportions of specified fruit likely to be exported and likely to be used for human consumption in Australia.
Section 8 of the Act provides for the exemption of specified kinds of dried fruit from levy, after consultation with the Corporation, by notice in the Gazette where the quantity of that fruit does not exceed a specified minimum quantity, or by regulation in other cases.
The Corporation has estimated for 1989 season sultanas, currants and raisins, the average export return, the volume of production and the proportions likely to be exported or used for human consumption in Australia, and on the basis of such estimates has recommended the rate of equalization levy to apply to sultanas and the exemption of raisins and currants from such levy.
The rate of levy for sultanas is estimated to provide an equalized return per tonne of 16.35 per cent. This rate is within the ceiling of 19.2 per cent as set out under
subsection 6(4) of the Act for sultanas of the 1989 season.
The Corporation has recommended 1989 season currants be exempt from levy on the basis that, of an estimated 1989 season production of 4378 tonnes, there is a minimal export allocation of 168 tonnes. This level of production exceeds the minimum quantity of 4000 tonnes which may be exempted from levy by notice in the Gazette under subsection 8(1) of the Act. The exemption requested must, therefore, be provided by way of regulation under subsection 8(3) of the Act. The 1989 season production raisins did not exceed the minimum quantity set for raisins and this exemption has been provided by notice in the Gazette.
The Minister for Primary Industries and Energy has accepted the Corporation’s estimates and recommendations as to the appropriate rate of levy and exemptions and this statutory regulation accordingly sets the rate of levy for sultanas produced during the 1989 season at $646 per tonne and exempts the 1989 season currants from levy.