ATO Interpretative Decision

ATO ID 2004/897

Excise

• This document incorporates revisions made since original publication. View its history and amending notices, if applicable.

Issue

Does section 15 of the Product Grants and Benefits Administration Act 2000 (PGBAA) permit an entity to correct errors made in a Fuel Sale Grant Scheme claim for a particular period by adjusting the amount claimed in a subsequent (and distinct) claim period?

Decision

No. Section 15 of the PGBAA does not permit an entity to correct errors made in a Fuel Sale Grant Scheme claim for a particular period by adjusting the amount claimed in a subsequent (and distinct) claim period.

Facts

The entity lodges their fuel sales grant claims at the end of each month.

The entity has been claiming on a 'running account' basis, that is:

•

if they had mistakenly under-claimed in one month, they would include the unclaimed fuel in their claim for a subsequent month (setting on); and

•

if they had mistakenly over-claimed in one month, they would reduce their claim for a subsequent month (setting off).

Reasons for Decision

Under section 7 of the Fuel Sales Grants Act 2000 (FSGA) an entity is entitled to a fuel sales grant for the fuel they sell to end users in an eligible location.

Section 8 of the PGBAA sets out the grants and benefits administered under that Act and the entitlement Acts under which those grants and benefits are payable. The FSGA is one of the Acts listed.

Section 15 of the PGBAA specifies various rules for claiming fuel sales grants and provides that:

1.

Despite the provisions of Part 3 and the entitlement Acts, you are not entitled to a grant or benefit unless you make a claim for a payment of the grant or benefit in respect of a claim period during which the entitlement (ignoring this subsection) arose.

Paragraph 15(2)(a) of the PGBAA allows that any such claim:

may relate to all the goods in respect of which you are entitled to a grant or benefit for the claim period in question; ... [Emphasis added.]

However, paragraph 15(2)(e) requires that the claim:

... must be given to the Commissioner before the end of 3 years after the start of the claim period.

'Claim period' is relevantly defined in section 12 of the PGBAA. Under section 12 of the PBGAA, the entity can, subject to any determination by the Commissioner, make a claim under section 15 for any period specified in the claim.

As the Commissioner has made no determination in relation to claim periods for the purposes of the Fuel Sales Grants Scheme, the client can make a claim for fuel sales for any period specified in the claim.

Consequently, the 'claim period' specified in a particular claim must, as a minimum, encompass the time between the earliest fuel purchase to be claimed and the latest fuel purchase to be claimed.

For example, where the client lodges a claim and the first fuel sale included in that claim occurred on 1 June 2003 and the last fuel sale included in that claim occurred on 30 June 2003, the 'claim period' for that claim must, as a minimum, cover the period 1 June 2003 to 30 June 2003.

However, under paragraph 15(2)(a) of the PBGAA there is no requirement that a claim lodged in respect of a particular period must include all the eligible fuel sales within that period.

Therefore, under section 15 of the PBGAA, an entity is entitled to include any fuel that they mistakenly did not include in one claim, in a subsequent claim. However, the subsequent claim must be for a claim period that encompasses the date of purchase of the fuel. Following on from the earlier example, the client could lodge a subsequent claim that covers both their fuel purchases for July 2003 and the amounts under-claimed in June 2003. However, the claim period specified on the claim would have to cover the period from the date of the first June purchase that the client now wishes to claim up to the date of the last July purchase. The client is not permitted to merely claim their June 2003 purchases in a claim form for the period 1 July 2003 to 31 July 2003.

A further requirement is that the client must lodge their claim with the Commissioner before the end of three years after the start of the claim period (that is, within three years from the purchase date of the first amount of under-claimed fuel).

Where a client has over-claimed in a particular month, there is no mechanism within the legislation whereby the client can offset the amount over-claimed against future claims. For example, if an amount is over-claimed in June 2003, the client cannot merely reduce the amount they would otherwise have claimed in July 2003 by the amount of the over-claim.

Rather, sections 20 and 21 of the PGBAA provide a mechanism whereby assessments in relation to grant entitlements may be amended. Where a client has over-claimed in a particular claim period, the appropriate action is to ask the Commissioner to amend their assessment under section 21 of the PGBAA. It is not appropriate merely to offset the over-claimed amount against subsequent claims.

Conclusion

The PGBAA allows a client to include any fuel that they mistakenly did not include in one claim, in a later claim, provided the later claim encompasses the date of purchase of the fuel, and is lodged before the end of three years after the start of the claim period.

However, a client cannot include the underclaimed amounts in a claim for a subsequent period that does not encompass the date of purchase of the fuel.

Nor can a client reduce the amount they would otherwise have claimed in a subsequent period to reflect an over-claim in an earlier period.

Accordingly, section 15 of the PGBAA does not allow a client to make claims for fuel sales grant on a 'running account' basis.

Legislative References:
Fuel Sales Grants Act 2000
   section 7

Keywords
Excise payments claim
Excise payments claim period
Fuel sales grants scheme

Business Line:  Excise

Date of publication:  19 November 2004

ISSN: 1445-2782