Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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CUSTOMS REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1997 NO. 70

Statutory Rules 1997 No. 70

Issued by the Authority for the Minister for Small Business and Consumer Affairs

Customs Act 1901

Customs Regulations (Amendment)

Section 270 of the Customs Act 1901 (the Act) provides in part that the Governor-General may make regulations not inconsistent with the Act prescribing all matters which by the Act are required or permitted to be prescribed for giving effect to the Act.

The amendments to the Customs Regulations (the Regulations) are for the purposes of the Customs Amendment Act (No. 1) 1997. This Act is one of a package of three Acts passed by the Parliament on 11 February 1997 to implement a cost recovery regime for import related services (for example, the processing of import entries, refund applications and depot licences) delivered by the Australian Customs Service. (The other two Acts are the Import Processing Charges Act 1997 and the Customs Depot Licensing Charges Act 1997.)

Several provisions of the Customs Amendment Act (No. 1) 1997 include matters under the various new fees which are required to be prescribed by Regulation. In addition, other amendments to the Customs Regulations remove superseded imposts as a consequence of the new charging regime in the principal Act.

In particular, the Regulations:

- prescribe the working days and hours of business for Customs operations, and the places where those operations may be performed, for the purposes of the new charges for overtime work or work performed at non-Customs places, (regulation 4),

- prescribe the rates to be levied for travel expenses incurred by officers of Customs performing overtime work or work at non-Customs places, (regulation 5);

- prescribe the travelling expenses payable by the holder of a depot licence under the new depot licensing regime, in those instances where a depot is located more than 20 kilometres from the nearest Customs office, (regulation 6);

- prescribe the circumstances in which a depot licence may be transferred, (regulation 6);

- repeal subregulation 52(1)(a), relating to the previous fee prescribed for warehoused goods, as that fee has now been superseded by 2 new fees in respect of warehoused goods, (regulation 7);

- repeal Regulation 128AB, relating to exemptions from the payment of the new refund application fee, (regulation 8); and

- repeal Regulation 192, relating to the fee which is currently payable by importers for work performed at non-Customs places, as this fee has been superseded by the new location fee in section 28 of the Act, (regulation 9).

Details of the proposed regulations are further explained in the Attachment.

The Regulations commenced on 1 April 1997, being the date on which the Customs Amendment Act (No. 1) 1997 was proclaimed to commence.