Cap. 254 чл. 81Power to make regulations.

(1) The Minister may, after consultation with the Authority, make regulations in respect of any of the functions of the

Authority or for the better carrying out of the provisions of this

Act.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of the aforesaid power, such regulations may in particular provide:

(a) for any matters in respect of authorisations under this Act, including the establishment of fees and of registration and declaration procedures, and for the making of any deposit or the giving of any guarantee to ensure the performance of any obligation imposed as a condition to any such authorisation;

(b) for the minimum standards to be adopted in the provision of postal services including the accessibility and dimensions of private letter-boxes and matters relating to health and safety, and in the context of basic counter services for the variation of the requirements with regard to the universal postal services that are to be provided;

(c) for the better protection of the interests of users of the postal services and for the establishment of any criteria or procedures to be followed by postal operators in the handling of complaints;

(d) for ensuring fair competition in all practices, operations and activities relating to postal services;

(e) for the undertaking of investigation on any matter relating to postal services regulated by or under this Act and the provision and, or retention of any information, the issue of directives or guidelines to the public, to postal operators, and to commercial entities on matters relating to postal services;

(f) for the compliance with any international obligation entered into by Government in relation to any aspect of postal services regulated by or under this Act including giving effect to the provisions of any convention, agreement or regulations, however so described, of the Universal Postal Union or any postal administration outside Malta as may be applicable to Malta;

(g) for regulating any aspect of postal services relating to universal services with regard to the time, manner, place and condition in which or under which such services are to be provided and including any funding mechanism in to order to ensure the provision of such services;

(h) in the case of universal services, for the prepayment of postage and postal fees on postal articles and prescribe the manner in which prepayment is to be made;

(i) in the case of universal services, for the postage and the postal fees to be charged on postal articles when the postage or the postage fees are not prepaid or are insufficiently prepaid;

(j) for the re-direction of postal articles, and the transmission by post of articles so re-directed, either free of charge or subject to such further charge as may be specified in the regulations;

(k) for the terms and conditions subject to which postal articles may be registered and insured, and the compensation payable for the loss of or damage to such articles;

(l) for the free transmission by post of such returns or other information as may be specified in the regulations;

(m) for the manner and conditions in and subject to which money orders, postal orders, payment cards and similar instruments, however so described, for the remittance of money may be issued, paid and cancelled, the rates of commission leviable thereon and the levy of additional rates of commission or fees;

(n) after consultation with the Minister responsible for Customs, for the modification or exception, subject to the provisions of this Act, of the application to postal articles received from abroad of any laws or regulations for the time being in force relating to the Customs, for the purpose of securing, in the case of such postal articles, the observance of such laws or regulations;

(o) for enabling officers of a postal operator to perform, for the purpose of the customs laws, all or any of the duties of the importer and exporter;

(p) for the Authority to be empowered to impose administrative fines or other sanctions upon any postal operator acting in contravention of any provisions of this Act or of any regulations or directives made thereunder and provide for the procedure for the imposition and enforcement of such fines which procedures may include provisions to the effect that any such fines shall constitute an executive title for the effects and purposes of Title VII of Part I of Book Second of the Code of Organization and Civil Procedure: Provided that the administrative fines provided for by regulations or directives made under this article shall not exceed the sum of twenty-five thousand euro (€25,000) for each offence and five hundred euro (€500) for each day during which failure to observe the provisions of this Act or of any regulations made thereunder or of any authorisation persists;

(q) for the custody, supply, sale and use of postage stamps and postal stationery, including the sale of such stamps and postal stationery for philatelic purposes and the levying of appropriate charges connected therewith, and for the use of franking machines for the purpose of denoting the prepaying of postage in place of postage stamps, and for prescribing the procedure to be used for the approval of postage stamp issues and for the appointment of any Board relating thereto; (r for prescribing that any person who acts in contravention of any regulation made under this Act shall be guilty of an offence and for establishing the penalties to which such person may be liable: Provided that no such penalty shall be greater than a fine (multa) exceeding ten thousand euro (€10,000);

(s) for prescribing the manner as to how any notice, instrument, act or document which is required or authorised by or under this Act may be served or given; (t for prescribing anything which may be or is required to be prescribed by this Act. FIRST SCHEDULE

2002.57. (Article 23)

Accounting procedures by:

2014.16;

Subject to article 23 of this Act and in accordance with any directives as the may issue, the universal service provider or providers shall keep separate within their accounting system, for each of the services and products which of the universal service on the one hand and those which are not on the other. internal accounting system shall operate on the basis of consistently applied objectively justifiable cost accounting principles. The accounting system referred to in paragraph 1 shall, without prejudice to 3, allocate costs in the following manner: costs which can be directly assigned to a particular service shall be so assigned; common costs, that is costs that cannot be directly assigned to a particular service, shall be allocated as follows:

(i) whenever possible, common costs shall be allocated on the basis of direct analysis of the origin of the costs themselves;

(ii) when direct analysis is not possible, common cost categories shall be allocated on the basis of an indirect linkage to another cost category or group of cost categories for which a direct assignment or allocation is possible; the indirect linkage shall be based on comparable cost structures;

(iii) when neither direct nor indirect measures of cost allocation can be found, the cost category shall be allocated on the basis of a general allocator computed by using the ratio of all expenses directly or indirectly assigned or allocated, on the one hand, to each of the universal services and on the other hand, to the other services;

(iv) common costs, which are necessary for the provision of both universal services and non-universal services, shall be allocated appropriately; the same cost drivers must be applied to both universal services and non-universal services.

Other cost accounting systems may be applied only if they are compatible paragraph 1 and have been approved in advance in writing by the Authority.

The universal service provider shall comply with one of the cost accounting described in paragraphs 1 and 2 which shall be verified by auditors independent of the provider and the expense of such auditors shall be paid by the The provider shall publish a statement concerning compliance in two daily newspapers at least once every calendar year.

The Authority shall keep available, to an adequate level of detail, information on the cost accounting systems applied by the universal service

The Authority may request the universal service provider to provide, in confidence, detailed accounting information arising from such cost systems.