EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
EXCISE ACT 1901
EXCISE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
STATUTORY RULES 1989 NO. 102
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR SCIENCE, CUSTOMS AND SMALL BUSINESS
Section 164 of the Excise 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 the giving of effect to this Act…”
The recently enacted Customs and Excise Legislation Amendment Act (No. 2) 1989 effected miscellaneous amendments to the Excise Act 1901, which, amongst other things:
(i) amended the manner in which the quantity of beer produced is measured for the purposes of assessing Excise duty;
(ii) amended section 78A of the Act to provide that an applicant for diesel fuel rebate must provide such information as is required by a form approved for the purposes of the Diesel-fuel Rebate Scheme by the Comptroller-General, rather than information prescribed by regulation; and
(iii) amended section 58 of the Act so that a person entering goods for home consumption is obliged to provide such information as is required by the Comptroller-General of Customs for that purpose.
These Statutory Rules effect consequential amendments to the Excise Regulations as a result of the amendments to the Excise Act discussed above.
Details of the Regulations are as follows:
Regulation 1 identifies the Excise Regulations as the Principal regulations being amended by these Statutory Rules.
Regulation 2 amends regulation 56 of the Principal Regulations to provide that beer that has had excise paid on it and:
i) has been returned in a bulk container (a term defined in Part VIIA of the Excise Act 1901 as being a container holding 2 or more litres of beer; or
2.
ii) is beer destroyed with the permission of the Collector
is a refund circumstance, upon which excise duty may be refunded.
Regulation 3 repeals the existing regulation 56 of the Principal Regulations (which deals with the manner in which a refund of excise duty will be made if beer is returned to the brewery of manufacture, or destroyed) and substitutes a new regulation that removes references to “hogsheads”, “half hogsheads”, “barrels” and “kilderkins”, which were removed from the Act by the Customs and Excise Legislation Act 1988. The Regulation now provides that where a person returns beer contained in a bulk container to the brewery of manufacture within 90 days after it was first removed from the brewery, or the beer was destroyed either because the beer was unfit, or the permission of the Collector had been obtained, and more than 87.5% of the contents of the bulk container remain in the container, a refund of excise paid on that beer may be made.
Regulation 4 repeals paragraphs 57A(1)(a),(b), (c), and (d) and subregulation 57A(2) of the Excise Regulations.
• These regulations prescribed the information that was required to be provided by a person applying for a rebate of duty in respect of diesel fuel used for certain specific purposes. As the amendment to section 78A of the Act made by the Customs and Excise Legislation Amendment Act (No. 2) 1989 now requires applicants to provide such information by an approved form, these regulations are unnecessary.
Regulation 5 repeals regulation 204 of the Principal Regulations.
• These regulations prescribed the information that must be included in an entry (of excisable products) for home consumption. As the amendment to section 58 of the Act made by the Customs and Excise Legislation Amendment Act (No. 2) 1989 now requires applicants to provide such information by an approved form, these regulations are unnecessary.