Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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TELEVISION LICENCE FEES REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1991 NO. 79

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

STATUTORY RULES 1991 No. 79

Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Transport and Communications

Television Licence Fees Act 1964

Television Licence Fees Regulations (Amendment)

Section 8 of the Television Licence Fees Act 1964 (the Act) provides that the GovernorGeneral may make regulations for the purposes of the Act. Subsection 5(2) of the Act provides that the regulations may make provision for rebates of fees payable by commercial television licensees.

The Television Licence Fees Regulations 1990 (Statutory Rules 1990 No. 3) (the Regulations) provide for payment of rebates of licence fees to regional commercial television licensees proceeding to aggregation. Rebates are payable on a tapered scale for four years following a direction by the Minister to extend the service area of the licence. The purpose of the rebates is to provide timely assistance with the capital costs of aggregation to regional licensees. The first rebates of fees under the Regulations applied in Approved Market C (Southern NSW) in January 1990.

Implementation of the equalisation scheme has coincided with a difficult time for commercial television licensees. After receiving representations from regional licensees in May 1990, the Government assessed the particular financial difficulties they were encountering in implementing equalisation. As a result, the Government decided on 13 December 1990 to provide additional assistance to these licensees by way of a package of measures including additional rebates on television licence fees.

The amendments of the Regulations provided for the introduction of an extended licence fees rebate scheme which applies retrospectively to licensees in Approved Market C Southern New South Wales (except RVN, as RVN is not an eligible licensee because its service area has not been extended) and Approved Market A Queensland, such that those licensees accrue credits of rebates in respect of licence fees due in January 1990 (Approved Market C) and January 1991 (in both cases). Eligible licensees are entitled to a 100% rebate for six years, capped to $1.6 million per annum, with the capacity for unused benefits to be carried forward beyond the initial six years. In this way, licensees whose revenues are relatively low but whose equalisation-related expenses are high receive the greatest relative assistance.

The extended scheme operates in addition to the current scheme, such that eligible licensees receive a rebate of the greater of the amounts to which they are entitled under the two schemes. The amendments provided that rebates may only be received by licensees who have taken reasonable steps to comply with the implementation plan applicable to the licensee in respect of the licence.

The amendments also clarified that licensees in Tasmania proceeding to serve an aggregated market are eligible for rebates under the earlier scheme.

Details of the amendments to the Regulations are in the Attachment.

The amending regulations are taken to have commenced on 1 January 1991.

ATTACHMENT

Details of Amendments

Commencement

Regulation 1 provides that the amendments are to be taken to have commenced on 1 January 1991.

Amendment

Regulation 2 provides that these regulations amend the Television Licence Fees Regulations.

Application

Subregulation 3.1 provides that, subject to subregulation 3.2, the amendments apply to fees payable by licensees on or after 1 January 1991.

Subregulation 3.2 applies the amendments to fees payable on or after 1 January 1990 by eligible licensees who hold licences in Approved Market C in Southern New South Wales.

Interpretation

Regulation 4 inserts in existing regulation 2 a definition of "unused credit amount".

Rebates of fees

Regulation 5 inserts new regulation 2A, which provides for rebates of fees payable by licensees (subregulation 2A(1)).

New subregulation 2A(2) provides that a rebate of fees may be payable to a person under Rebate Scheme A (which was introduced by the Regulations in 1990), or under Rebate Scheme B (introduced by the amending regulations), but not under both.

New subregulation 2A(3) provides that Rebate Scheme A only applies to a licensee in respect of a period if the amount of rebate to which the licensee would be entitled for a year would be greater than the amount of rebate which would be available to the licensee under Rebate Scheme B.

New subregulation 2A(4) provides that the examples, which demonstrate the intended operation of the substantive provisions of the regulations, do not override those provisions.

Regulation 3 (Rebate Scheme A - commercial television licence rebates)

Subregulations 6.1 and 6.2 amend existing regulations 3(1)(a) and 3(2)(b) to show clearly that licensees implementing television equalisation in Tasmania are eligible for television licence fee rebates under Rebate Scheme A.

Subregulation 6.3 inserts new subregulation 3(2) which adds a new criterion for eligibility for licence fee rebates: a licensee must have taken reasonable steps to comply with the implementation plan applicable to that licensee in respect of its licence.

Regulation 4 (Rebate Scheme A - consolidated licence rebates)

Regulation 7 amends existing subregulation 4(1) by adding the same new criterion for eligibility for rebates for a licensee holding a consolidated licence as is applicable to the holder of a nonconsolidated licence (see subregulation 6.3).

New Regulations 5 and 6

Regulation 8 inserts new regulations 5 and 6 dealing with Rebate Scheme B, and some examples to illustrate the intended operation of that scheme.

Rebate Scheme B - commercial television licence rebates

New regulation 5 provides for the introduction of a licence fees rebate scheme, which provides extended licence fee rebates for commercial television licensees in an approved market.

New subregulation 5(1) identifies the licensees to whom the new regulation applies.

New subregulation 5(2) provides that a licensee is entitled to a rebate if the licensee gives written notice to the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal (the Tribunal) of its claim for a rebate (paragraph (a)), the Minister has directed the Tribunal under section 94S of the Broadcasting Act 1942 to extend the service area of the licence (paragraph (b)), the licence has not been in force for more than six years since the Minister gave that direction in a case where there is no unused credit amount (paragraph (c)) and the licensee has taken reasonable steps to comply with the implementation plan applicable to the licence (paragraph (d)).

New subregulation 5(3) provides for the amount of rebates for a year. The amount of rebate is equal to the amount of licence fees, or $1 600 000, whichever is the lesser, payable each year for six years on the anniversary of the date of commencement of the licence occurring after the Minister's direction to the Tribunal to extend the licence service area.

New subregulation 5(4) provides for the amount of rebates for a year when there is an unused credit amount in relation to a licence. The amount of rebate is equal to the amount of licence fees, or $1 600 000 plus the unused credit amount, whichever is the lesser, payable each year for six years on the anniversary of the date of commencement of the licence occurring after the Minister's direction to the Tribunal to extend the licence service area. The unused credit amount is reduced by any amount by which the amount of rebate exceeds $1 600 000 (paragraph (a)).

If the fee payable by the licensee is the fee payable on or after the seventh anniversary of the date of commencement of the licence occurring after the Minister's direction to the Tribunal to extend the licence service area, the amount of rebate is an amount not exceeding the amount of the fee, or the unused credit amount, whichever is the lesser, and the unused credit amount is reduced by the amount of rebate (paragraph (b)).

New subregulation 5(5) enables the licence fee rebate cap of $1 600 000 referred to in the preceding subregulations (3) and (4) to be adjusted on a pro rata basis for licensees where service area has been extended to only part of an Approved Market (two licensees in Approved Market A in Queensland are in this situation). A formula using the populations of the service area of the relevant licence and of the Approved Market in which that licence is held is the basis for the calculation. For that purpose, the population figures published in a notice under s.91AAD of the Broadcasting Act 1942 are to be used.

Rebate Scheme B - consolidated licence rebates

New regulation 6 extends the entitlement to the extended rebate scheme to licensees holding consolidated licences (new licensees), that is, licences resulting from the consolidation of two or more former licences at the direction of the Minister under section 94ZC of the Broadcasting Act 1942.

New regulation 6 provides for the calculation of the amount of licence fee rebate. An eligible new licensee is entitled to receive rebates calculated with reference to the anniversary of the former licensee who was most advanced through the extended scale. The provision parallels closely the provisions of new regulation 5 applying to non-consolidated licensees, explained in detail above.

Examples 1, 2 and 3

Examples 1, 2 and 3 illustrate the intended operation of the licence fee rebate cap and credit provisions.


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