New South Wales Consolidated Acts

MINE SUBSIDENCE COMPENSATION ACT 1961 - SECT 11

11 Contributions to be paid by colliery proprietors to Fund

(1) In this section, "land value", in relation to a colliery holding, is the land value of the colliery holding as determined under the Valuation of Land Act 1916 .

(1A) Where, in respect of any year, a manner of calculating a sum to be contributed to the Fund by the proprietor of a colliery holding is prescribed for the purposes of this subsection, the proprietor of that colliery holding shall, subject to this section, contribute to the Fund in respect of that year the sum calculated in that manner.

(1B) The contribution under subsection (1A) payable by a proprietor of a colliery holding in respect of any year:

(a) shall be based:

(i) on the land value of that colliery holding as in force on 30th June in that year,

(ii) if no land value has been determined for that colliery holding by 30th June in that year-on the first land value of that colliery holding that is determined after that day, or

(iii) if that colliery holding ceases to be registered in accordance with the Mining Act 1992 before 30th June in that year-on the land value last used for the purposes of this section, or

(b) where some other basis is prescribed-shall be based on that other basis.

(1C) Without affecting the generality of subsection (1A), the power:

(a) under subsection (1A) to prescribe the manner of calculating the sum to be contributed to the Fund by the proprietor of a colliery holding in respect of any year, or

(b) under subsection (1B) to prescribe the basis of that contribution,

may be exercised:

(c) either in relation to all cases to which the power extends, or in relation to all of those cases subject to specified exceptions, or in relation to any specified cases or class of cases, and

(d) so as to make, as respects the cases in relation to which it is exercised, the same provision for all of those cases or different provision for different cases or classes of cases.

(2) The Board shall, in respect of a year for which the proprietor of a colliery holding is required pursuant to subsection (1A) to contribute to the Fund, cause to be served, in accordance with subsection (3), on that proprietor a notice in a form approved by the Board specifying the amount of the proprietor’s contribution for that year.

(3) Any such notice shall be deemed to have been served on the proprietor of a colliery holding:

(a) where the proprietor is an individual, if it is delivered to the proprietor personally or is sent by prepaid certified mail to the proprietor’s address last known to the Board, or

(b) where the proprietor is a body corporate, if it is served in a manner provided by section 109X or 601CX of the Corporations Act 2001 of the Commonwealth for the service of documents on that body corporate.

(3A) Any contribution payable under this section in respect of any year shall be due and payable:

(a) on 28 January in the following year or on the expiration of the period of 28 days after a notice under subsection (2) has been served in accordance with subsection (3) in respect of that contribution, whichever is the later, or

(b) where any such notice has been served in respect of that contribution in the place of a previous notice that did not specify the correct amount of the contribution-on the expiration of the period of 28 days after any such replacement notice has been served in accordance with subsection (3).

(4) Interest, at such rate, not exceeding 15 per cent per annum, as may be determined by the Board from time to time for the purposes of this subsection, shall be paid by the proprietor of a colliery holding on the amount of the proprietor’s contribution that has not been paid on the date it becomes due and payable in respect of the period from that date until the date of payment of that amount.

(5) The Board may waive any interest payable under subsection (4).

(6) Where a colliery holding is registered in accordance with the provisions of the Mining Act 1992 for part only of a year, the person who was proprietor of that colliery holding during that part of the year shall contribute to the Fund in respect of that part such amount as bears to the amount that his or her contribution would have been had that holding been so registered for the whole of that year the same proportion as that part of that year bears to the whole of that year.

(7) Where there is a change in the proprietorship of a colliery holding during any year the contribution payable by each proprietor of that holding in respect of that year shall be apportioned.

(8) Any contribution or interest payable under this section which is not paid as required by this section shall be deemed to be a debt due to the Crown and may be recovered by the Board on behalf of the Crown in any court of competent jurisdiction.

(9) The Board may exempt the proprietor of a colliery holding from paying in respect of any year such portion of the proprietor’s contribution as relates to that part of the year during which, in the opinion of the Board, the extraction of coal or shale had not commenced.