EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1990 No. 213
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 Lew 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 1990 season currants, sultanas 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 currants, sultanas and raisins.
The rates of levy for currants, sultanas and currants are estimated to provide an equalized return per tonne of 8.94 per cent, 12.23 percent and 14.99 percent respectively. These rates of levy are within the ceiling of 15.0 per cent as set out under subsection 6(4) of the Act for currants, sultanas and raisins of the 1990 season.
The Corporation has advised that estimates of production for the 1990 season are for currants 5,983 tonnes, for sultanas 54,030 tonnes and for raisins 4,285 tonnes. These amounts exceed the ‘minimum quantity’ set out in subsection 8(2) of the Act.
The Minister for Primary Industries and Energy has accepted the Corporation’s estimates and recommendations as to the appropriate rate of levy and this statutory regulation accordingly sets the rates of levy for the 1990 season at $223 per tonne for currants, $462 per tonne for sultanas and $273 per tonne for raisins.