COARSE GRAINS LEVY REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1994 NO. 355

COARSE GRAINS LEVY REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1994 NO. 355

STATUTORY RULES 1994 No. 355

Issued by Authority of the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy

COARSE GRAINS LEVY ACT 1992

COARSE GRAINS LEVY REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)

Subsection 15(1) of the Coarse Grains Levy Act 1992 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations for the purposes of the Act. Amendments to the Act to change the basis on which the research levy is imposed on barley from a flat rate per tonne to an ad valorem rate, were recently made by the Coarse Grains Levy Amendment Act 1994 which received Royal Assent on 27 September 1994. As recommended by the Grains Council of Australia (GCA), which is the prescribed grower organisation for barley, the Act has set the operative levy rate for barley at 1% of the net farm gate value from 1 October 1994. Levy revenue attracts matching Commonwealth contributions and is used to fund research programs for these grains administered by the Grains Research and Development Corporation.

The main purpose of the Regulations is to maintain consistency between the Regulations and the Act by removing references to the flat rate per tonne levy for barley which no longer applies. References to the operational levy rates for oats and cereal rye which are now set by the Act at the same rates as previously prescribed, have been removed from the regulations.

A minor amendment has also been made to the definition of "millet" to clarify that levy is imposed only on grain harvested from grain type millets, as opposed to that from forage millets.

Details of the Regulations are set out in the Attachment.

The Regulations are taken to have commenced on 1 October 1994 to maintain consistency with the date of commencement of the ad valorem. rates of levy for barley under the Act. The Regulations do not impose any obligation on levy payers as the operative rate of levy for barley has been established under the Act.

ATTACHMENT

Details of the Regulations are as follows:

Regulation 1 - Provides for the regulations to be taken to have commenced on 1 October 1994. This is to maintain consistency with the Act.

Regulation 2 - Provides for amendment of the Coarse Grains Levy Regulations.

Regulation 3 - Clarifies the definition of "millet" to exclude forage type millets. As a result, any grain harvested from these latter type millets will not be classed as leviable coarse grain.

Regulation 4 - Removes the prescription of the operative rate on levy on barley, which had been set on a flat rate per tonne basis prior to amendment of the Act.

Regulation 5 - Removes Regulation 5 which had set the operative rate of levy for oats and cereal rye at 1% of the value of the grain from 1 October 1992. This same operative rate of levy for these grains has been continued under provisions of the Act as a result of recent amendments.