EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1984 No 396
Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Primary Industry.
DRIED VINE FRUITS EQUALIZATION ACT 1978
DRIED VINE FRUITS EQUALIZATION REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
The dried vine fruits equalization scheme, which is administered by the Australian Dried Fruits Corporation, provides for the equalizing of unit returns from domestic and export markets. This is done as a two stage process. A levy is imposed on domestic sales taking account of the expected excess of domestic prices over export prices, the proceeds being paid into an equalization fund. An “assessed export return” is estimated at the start of each season for all export sales and exporters enter into an arrangement with the Corporation whereby at the end of the season payments are made to or from the fund according to whether the average export return for each exporter is greater or less than the assessed export return. The surplus remaining in the fund is distributed over total production.
The regulations presently require exporters to provide separate information for each export sale to enable the Corporation to calculate the amounts due to or payable by exporters at a season’s end.
Provision of this information has proved to be troublesome for exporters, and analysis of it has been very time-consuming for the Corporation. The information necessary is already being obtained by the Corporation under its general powers for export control purposes.
Accordingly it is proposed to amend the regulations to eliminate the collection of separate information specifically for equalization purposes and to use information collected for export control purposes also in relation to equalization matters. This will reduce the administrative burden on both the Corporation and exporters.
The opportunity is also being taken to make a minor amendment to the regulations to account for changed staff arrangements within the Corporation.