Australia: Consultation on draft legislation, regulations to streamline administration of fuel, alcohol excise
Consultation for these draft materials closes on 5 April 2024.
Treasury released for consultation draft legislation and draft regulations that are part of a package of measures to streamline the administration of the excise and customs systems for the fuel and alcohol industries.
The draft legislation—the Treasury Laws Amendment Bill 2024: Streamlining Excise Administration for Fuel and Alcohol—would streamline and align license application and renewal requirements for entities who hold excise licenses or customs warehouse licenses to manufacture or store alcohol and fuel by:
- Removing the renewal requirements so that the licenses are ongoing
- Removing the fees associated with applying, renewing, and varying these licenses
- Enabling a license to be granted in relation to one or more premises and providing default movement permission for the goods
- Removing the requirement for onshore producers of crude oil and condensate to hold a license when the production threshold for the field is less than 30 million barrels
- Establishing a public register, published on the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website, containing the license holder’s name, ABN, and type of license
The two draft regulations—the Excise Amendment Regulations 2024 and Customs Amendment Regulations 2024—would provide greater consistency and simplification by:
- Amending the time limit to apply for a refund of excise overpayments to four years after payment, to align with refunds of customs duty and other indirect tax refunds
- Permitting the refund of excise‑equivalent customs duty already paid on petroleum‑based oils used in the further manufacture of petroleum lubricants, to align treatment of excise‑equivalent customs duty with excise duty
- Removing the requirement to pay and then claim refunds for excise or excise‑equivalent customs duty on fuels used in commercial shipping (“bunker fuels”), aligning their treatment with the duty‑free treatment of bunker fuels for international voyages
- Setting a single rate for businesses to calculate and claim Vapour Recovery Unit refunds.
Consultation for these draft materials closes on 5 April 2024.