EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULE NO. 279 ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS
Section 9 of the Radiocommunications (Receiver Licence Tax) Act 1983 (‘the Act’) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations for the purposes of section 7 of the Act.
Amongst other things, section 7 provides that the amount of tax in respect of the grant of a receiver licence is such amount as is ascertained in accordance with the regulations.
Regulation 3 of the Radiocommunications (Receiver Licence Tax) Regulations contains a table setting out the rates of tax per annum in respect of the grant of various classes of receiver licences.
The regulation omits the existing table from Regulation 3 and substitutes a new table. The new table contains two new classes of station to which receiver licences apply, namely “Earth station, Class A (receive-only)” and “Earth station, Class B (receive-only)”. These two new classes of earth station have been introduced to enable the voluntary licensing of such stations for co-ordination purposes.
The new table also increases the rates of tax applicable to the various categories of receiver licence in accordance with Government decisions taken in the Budget context.