Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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CORPORATIONS (FEES) AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 2002 (NO. 2) 2002 NO. 146

Statutory Rules 2002 No. 146

Issued by the Authority of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer

Corporations (Fees) Act 2001

Corporations (Fees) Amendment Regulations 2002 (No. 2)

Section 8 of the Corporations (Fees) Act 2001 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations for the purposes of sections 5 and 6 of that Act.

Section 5 provides that, subject to section 6 of the Act, regulations may prescribe fees for chargeable matters and two or more fees may be prescribed for the same chargeable matter. Fees prescribed by the regulations are imposed as taxes.

Section 6 of the Act provides, inter alia, that the regulations may prescribe a fee of an amount not exceeding $5 000 for a chargeable matter (subsection 6(1)), except for a chargeable matter referred to in paragraph (1) or (k) of subsection 4(1), for which a fee may not exceed $25 000 (subsection 6(3)).

Subsection 4(1) defines "chargeable matters". They include lodging documents under the Corporations Act 2001; inquiring or applying to the Minister, or to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), in relation to a matter arising under that Act; or the doing of any act by the Takeovers Panel in dealing with applications to the Panel under that Act.

The purpose of the proposed Regulations is to amend the Corporations (Fees) Regulations 2001 to increase fees for chargeable matters, as defined in the Act. Whilst the increases to these fees will not fully recover the true costs involved, they are a significant step toward a "user pays" system of ASIC servicing.

None of the fees set out in the proposed Regulations exceeds the $5 000 limit referred to in subsection 6(1) of the Act for a fee that is stated as a prescribed amount. Where two or more fees apply in respect of the same chargeable matter, the total of those fees does hot exceed the upper limit of $25 000 referred to in subsection 6(3).

Fees for lodging annual returns of proprietary companies and small transferring financial institutions would remain at their current level of $200.

The responsible State and Northern Territory Ministers on the Ministerial Council for Corporations have been consulted about the proposed Regulations as required by clause 505 of the Corporations Agreement reached between State, Northern Territory and Commonwealth Ministers who had responsibilities in relation to corporate regulation in June 1990. The approval of the Ministerial Council is not required for amendments to regulations relating to fees.

Details of the proposed Regulations are set out in the Attachment.

The proposed Regulations would commence on 1 July 2002.

ATTACHMENT

Regulation 1: Name of Regulations

Regulation 1 provides that the Regulations are the Corporations (Fees) Amendment Regulations 2002 (No. 2).

Regulation 2: Commencement

Regulation 2 provides that the Regulations commence on 1 July 2002.

Regulation 3: Amendment of Corporations (Fees) Regulations 2001

Regulation 3 provides that Schedule 1 amends the Corporations (Fees) Regulations 2001.

Schedule 1: Amendments

Item 1 - Schedule

The purpose of the proposed regulations is to amend the Corporations (Fees) Regulations 2001 to increase fees in line with the recommendations of the Expenditure Review Committee in April 2002.

The changes in quantum of fees are set out in the following table:

Provision	Omit each     mention of ($)	Insert ($)
Subparagraph 5 (a) (i)	720	740
Paragraph 22 (b)	300	900
Paragraph 23 (b)	210	500
Paragraph 24 (b)	120	300
Paragraph 28 (a)	60	65
Paragraph 28 (b)	240	260