EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1989 NO 41
Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy.
HORTICULTURAL EXPORT CHARGE ACT 1987
HORTICULTURAL EXPORT CHARGE COLLECTION ACT 1987
HORTICULTURAL EXPORT CHARGE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
The proposed Regulations will:
(a) increase the operative rate of export charge payable for grapefruit (not in bulk) from a total of 1.67 cents per box to 2 cents per box;
(b) provide for a standard form of warrant to be issued to persons authorised to enter premises under the Horticultural Export Charge Collection Act 1987 (the Collection Act);
(c) enable exporting agents and certain owners whose annual liability for charge is small, to lodge annual returns rather than monthly returns.
Section 6 of the Horticultural Export Charge Act 1987 (the Charge Act) imposes a charge on certain horticultural products produced in Australia that are exported.
Sections 8 and 9 of the Charge Act provides that regulations may fix rates of charge destined for the Australian Horticultural Corporation (AHC) and the Horticultural Research and Development Corporation (HRDC) in relation to these horticultural products. The present operative rates for grapefruit (not in bulk) are 1.25 cents and 0.42 cents per box respectively or 1.67 cents in total. The new rates will commence on 1 April 1989.
Subsections 14(3) and 14(4) of the Charge Act require that before making regulations for the purposes of sections 8 and 9, the Governor-General shall take into consideration any relevant recommendation made to the Minister by the AHC and HRDC respectively. The AHC, on behalf of the HRDC, after consulting with the Australian Citrus Growers’ Federation, has recommended that the operative rates be increased to 1.5 cents and 0.5 cents per box or 2 cents per box in total. The main reason for seeking the change is to facilitate the collection of the charge by reducing the number of decimal places within the rates of charge.
Section 13 of the Collection Act provides for a warrant to be issued to authorised persons to enter premises for the purposes of the Act. Regulation 13 of the Regulations presently provides that the form of warrant may be in the form in Schedule 4 of the Regulations. This amendment will require that the form of warrant must be in the form provided in the Schedule.
Regulation 9 of the Regulations requires exporting agents and certain owners of chargeable horticultural products to lodge monthly returns. A considerable number of these returns are for quite small amounts of charge. To reduce the cost of collection it is proposed that agents and owners whose annual liability for charge is less than $1,000 (or such other prescribed amount) be given the opportunity to lodge annual returns.