New South Wales Consolidated Acts

TRAVEL AGENTS ACT 1986 - SECT 17

17 Annual fee and annual statement

(1) Except where regulations made for the purposes of subsection (2) otherwise provide, a licensee shall, before the expiration of one month after each anniversary of the date on which the licence was granted, pay to the Director-General in respect of the year commencing on that anniversary the prescribed fee for the licence.

(2) The regulations may make provision for and with respect to the date and payment of the fee prescribed for the purposes of subsection (1) where licensees carry on business in partnership.

(3) A person who is or was a licensee during a year, or part of a year, commencing on the date, or on an anniversary of the date, on which the licence was granted shall lodge with the Director-General a statement in respect of that year or part of a year that is in a form approved by the Minister and is signed:

(a) where the licensee who lodges the statement is a natural person-by that person, or

(b) where the licensee that lodges the statement is a body corporate-by at least 1 director of the body corporate.

(4) The statement lodged under subsection (3) may, where the business to which the statement relates was carried on in partnership, be made and signed jointly by the partners as prescribed by the regulations.

(5) A statement referred to in subsection (3) shall be accompanied by such documents as may be prescribed.

(6) A person required under subsection (3) to lodge a statement shall lodge the statement (together with any documents required to accompany the statement under subsection (5)) within one month after the end of the year in respect of which, or part of which, the statement is lodged.

(7) The Director-General may, on the application of a person required to comply with subsection (1) or subsections (3) and (6), extend or further extend the time for compliance with the applicable subsection or subsections.

(8) Where a licensee has failed to pay a fee, or lodge a statement, or pay a fee and lodge a statement, in accordance with this section and the regulations, the Director-General shall give notice in writing to the licensee that, unless the fee is paid or the statement lodged, or the fee is paid and the statement lodged, together with the prescribed late fee (if any), before a day specified in the notice, being a day that is not earlier than 14 days after the giving of the notice, the licence will be cancelled.

(9) The Director-General may cancel the licence held by a person who fails to pay a fee or lodge a statement, or pay a fee and lodge a statement, as referred to in a notice given under subsection (8).

(10) Subject to subsection (7), a person (not being a licensee) to whom subsections (3) and (6) apply shall comply with those subsections.

Penalty: 20 penalty units.

(11) If, while a licence is in force, there occurs:

(a) between the time the application for the licence was granted and the time the first statement is lodged under subsection (3)-a change in the particulars specified in, or provided in connection with, the application, or

(b) between the lodging of successive annual statements under subsection (3)-a change in the particulars specified in the earlier of those statements,

not in either case being a change of the person in charge at an unchanged place of business, the licensee shall, within 14 days after the occurrence of the change, give to the Director-General notice in writing specifying particulars of the change.

Penalty: 20 penalty units.

(12) A person shall not, in or in relation to a statement required to be lodged under subsection (3) or a notice required to be given under subsection (11), make a statement that is false or misleading by reason of the inclusion of any false or misleading matter or the omission of any material matter.

Penalty: 20 penalty units.

(13) It is a defence to a prosecution of a person for an offence under subsection (12) if it is proved that, when the statement was lodged or the notice given, the person:

(a) believed on reasonable grounds that the false matter was true,

(b) believed on reasonable grounds that the misleading matter was not misleading,

(c) in the case of an omission-believed on reasonable grounds that no material matter had been omitted, or

(d) in the case of an omission-did not know that the omitted matter was material.