EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1982 NO. 167
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE TREASURER
The purpose of these regulations is to -
• correct a drafting error in the definition of “auxiliaries to aids for manufacture” in regulation 4 of the Sales Tax Regulations
• provide that references to a “State” (which includes the Northern Territory) in the Sales Tax Regulations are to be taken to include areas of the continental shelf of Australia to which the sales tax law will, from 14 July 1982, apply.
Introductory Note
The amendment made by sub-regulation 1(1) corrects a drafting error which occurred in Statutory Rules 1981, No. 294.
The amendment made by sub-regulation 1(2) is consequential upon changes made by the Sales Tax Amendment (Off-shore Installations) Acts (Nos. 1 to 9) 1982 (Acts Nos. 55 to 63 of 1982), the Off-shore Installations (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act 1982 (Act No. 51 of 1982), and the Sales Tax (Exemptions and Classifications) Amendment (Off-shore Installations) Act 1982 (Act No. 64 of 1982) which received the Royal Assent on 16 June 1982. These Acts extended, with effect from 14 July 1982, the application of the sales tax law to off-shore installations which are attached to the Australian seabed for the purposes of exploring and exploiting the mineral and non-living resources of the seabed and its subsoil.
Details of the changes made by the amending regulations are set out below.
Sub-regulation 1(1) amends the definition of “auxiliaries to aids for manufacture” in regulation 4 of the Sales Tax Regulations in order to correct a drafting error. Following this amendment the definition will be consistent with the expression used throughout the regulations, which is “auxiliaries to aids to manufacture”.
Sub-regulation 1(2) provides that references in the Sales Tax Regulations to a “State” (a term which by definition includes the Northern Territory) shall be taken to include the area of Australian waters which is adjacent to that State. “Australian waters” is defined in the Sales Tax Assessment Act (No. 1) as meaning the waters above the “Australian seabed”. This latter expression is in turn defined as so much of the seabed described in Schedule 2 to the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1967 or the Coral Sea area defined in that Act, as is part of the Australian continental shelf or which is beneath either the Australian territorial sea or any internal waters that are not within the limits of a State or Territory. Paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) describe those areas adjacent to each State and the Northern Territory which are to be included in a reference in the regulations to the expression “State”.
Regulation 2 provides that the amendment made by sub-regulation 1(2) is to come into operation on 14 July 1982. This is the date (28 days after Assent) on which the Sales Tax Amendment (Off-shore Installations) Acts (Nos. 1 to 9), the Off-shore Installations (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act and the Sales Tax (Exemptions and Classifications) Amendment (Off-shore Installations) Act come into operation.
By reason of paragraph 48(1)(b) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901, the amendment made by sub-regulation 1(1) comes into operation on the date on which the regulations are notified in the Gazette.