EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Statutory Rules 1985 No. 357
Excise Regulations (Amendment)
Issued by the Authority of the Minister of State for Industry, Technology and Commerce
Statutory Rules 1984 No. 126 amended the Excise Regulations (“the Regulations”) to:
(i) insert a new circumstance into regulation 50, as paragraph 50(1)(n), to allow rebates of excise duty to be paid on stabilized crude petroleum oil exported after 30 June 1983; and
(ii) insert a new regulation 52B to prescribe the rates of rebate to be so paid.
This regulation was made following the Government’s decision in the context of the 1983/84 Budget that excise duty would be rebated on exports of excisable “old” crude oil.
The total amount of rebate to be paid on eligible stabilized crude petroleum oil is determined on the basis of 87% of the difference between the ruling Bass Strait import parity price and the effective realised price achieved by each producer/exporter (for the period 1 July 1984 to 31 December 1984 the rate of rebate is 35%).
The rates of rebate prescribed in regulation 52B, however, provided for only a proportion of the total amount of rebate to be paid as the precise figures for the rebate were not known until final information on production and exports for the 1983/84 financial year was available.
The purpose of the regulations is to substitute a revised regulation 52B to prescribe revised rates of rebate in respect of eligible stabilized crude petroleum oil for the 1983/84 financial year and for the period from 1 July 1984 to 31 December 1984 a new rate which will represent the total amount of rebate that is to be paid in the circumstance specified in paragraph 50(1)(n) of the Regulations for those periods.
The regulations effect the introduction of the revised rates of rebate as follows:
• regulation 1 repeals regulation 52B and substitutes a new regulation 52B containing a table which specifies the rates of rebate now allowable in the circumstance specified in paragraph 50(1)(n) of the Regulations for the volumes of oil and the periods specified in the table.
(b) for any portion of a quantity that exceeds 642,301.5 kilolitres but not more than 818,483.1 kilolitres - $8.2864631; and
(c) for any portion of a quantity that exceeds 818,483.1 kilolitres - Nil.
(ii) Oil exported from 1 July 1984 to 31 December 1984 (inclusive) -
(a) for any quantity up to 786,441.7 kilolitres - $7.89019491;
(b) for any portion of a quantity that exceeds 786,441.7 kilolitres but not more than 970.889.8 kilolitres - $12.4914896; and
(c) for any portion of a quantity that exceeds 970.889.8 kilolitres - Nil.
• sub-regulation 2(1) provides for the retrospective operation of the regulations to apply to oil exported after 30 June 1983.
The new rates represent the full rate of rebate to be paid in the circumstance referred to in paragraph 50(1)(n) of the Regulations and eligible claimants will be entitled to a rebate at the new rate if that rate is higher than the rate specified in the repealed regulation 52B.
• sub-regulation 2(2) provides, in relation to rebates payable in respect of the 1983/84 financial year, that if a claimant would be entitled to a larger rebate under existing regulation 52B than would be the case under new regulation 52B then the existing regulation 52B applies and the claimant is eligible for the larger rebate.
This will ensure that no claimant can be disadvantaged by the regulations which are retrospective in operation.