Page 3466 - Week 11 - Thursday, 14 October 1993
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Madam Speaker, looking at the measures announced in the ACT budget, one cannot help making mention of the absolute debacle that occurred one day before the October long weekend. The Chief Minister said in her budget speech in September:
From 1 November the fuel franchise fee, which has been frozen for the last three years, will be restored in real terms to the same level as in New South Wales, and it will be indexed in the future. The fee will rise by approximately 0.5c per litre and will raise $700,000 in 1993-1994, or about $1m in a full year.
Madam Speaker, on 30 September the Prices Surveillance Authority notified oil companies, who in turn notified their retailers, that they had approved price rises of 0.5c per litre in line with an increase in the franchise fee charged by the ACT Government. Many retailers were able to hold off passing their price rises on to consumers while they utilised their existing stocks of fuel.
It was staggering news to the Government, though, apparently, that the price rise was to come in a month ahead of schedule. My inquiries with several retailers and the Motor Trades Association indicated that government officials were, as late as the afternoon of Thursday 30 September, telling retailers that there would be no price rise until 1 November. On 1 November the business franchise fee becomes payable for November, based on sales made during the previous month. The problem is that no-one in the Government quite realised what was meant to occur as far as the implementation date was concerned. I perused the Business Franchise (Tobacco and Petroleum Products) Act, and in particular section 3A, which I quote. It is not a particularly easy Act to understand, but it says:
In this Act, a reference to a relevant period in relation to an application for a licence, or for the renewal of a licence, in respect of a month the name of which is specified in Column 1 of the Schedule shall be read as a reference to the last preceding month of the name specified in Column 2 of the Schedule opposite the name of the first-mentioned month.
When we look at that schedule, for the month of, for example, November, specified in column 1, we see under column 2 not October but September.
Ms Follett: Two months. Read the Act. That is right.
MR HUMPHRIES: That is right. So petrol prices are couched in terms not of what is happening in a particular month in which the fee is paid - - -
Ms Follett: No, two months beforehand.
MR HUMPHRIES: But two months before. Exactly, Chief Minister. Madam Speaker, we have a situation where, if retailers are going to be paying an increase in their business franchise fees from 1 November, for example for the month of December, which is one month after that point, they will have to be collecting additional revenue in order to pay that tax as from a date two months before that point.
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