Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

[Index] [Search] [Download] [Related Items] [Help]

FUEL SALES GRANTS AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 2001 (NO. 1) 2001 NO. 121

STATUTORY RULES 2001 No. 121

Issued by the authority of the Assistant Treasurer

Fuel Sales Grants Act 2000

Fuel Sales Grants Amendment Regulations 2001 (No. 1)

Section 9 of the Fuel Sales Grants Act 2000 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing matters required to give effect to the Act.

The Act came into effect on 1 July 2000. The legislation was introduced for the purpose of maintaining fuel price relativities between metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas following the introduction of the goods and services tax and the contemporaneous reduction in the excise rate on fuel.

The principal Regulations specify that a grant rate of one cent per litre is payable for sales of petrol and diesel to consumers in non-metropolitan areas and that a grant rate of 2 cents per litre is payable for sales of petrol and diesel in remote areas. A further one cent per litre is available in remote areas where the price of petrol and diesel has exceeded $1.21 continuously for 4 weeks or more.

The purpose of the amending Regulations was to address the exclusion of fuel sales made at sea by motherships to fishing vessels from the Fuel Sales Grants Scheme because they did not occur at a location specified in the Regulations.

To address this anomaly the Regulations have introduced a new Regulation 5A that provides that fuel sales that take place in the coastal sea are taken to have occurred in the same type of area as the closest point of land to the location of the receiving vessel. For example, if the closest land to the receiving vessel is part of a remote area then the receiving vessel is taken to be in a remote area.

The Regulations commenced on gazettal.