Cap. 382 Art. 13Regulations.

(1) The Minister may make, and when made, revoke or amend regulations for the better carrying out of the provisions of this Act, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, such regulations may provide for any of the following:

(a) the time or times within which, the place where, and the manner in which, excise duty in accordance with this Act is to be paid;

(b) the manner in which excisable goods may be produced;

(c) the circumstances under which excisable goods not fit for consumption or unmarketable are destroyed without the payment of duty, or with refund of duty;

(d) the providing of a security by an authorised tax warehouse keeper in a form acceptable to the Commissioner, in order to safeguard the payment of excise duty payable under this Act, and the manner in which such security may be called in;

(da) the extension of all or part of the provisions of this Act, including any regulations thereunder to any exclusive economic zone area or environment protection area as defined in Exclusive Economic Zone Act and prescribing or otherwise providing for excise duty matters in respect of an exclusive economic zone area or environment protection area as defined in Exclusive Economic Zone Act;

(e) the fees that may be payable to the Commissioner for any services provided by him or for the registration of any authorised tax warehouse under this Act;

(f) anything that may be prescribed in accordance with this Act;

(g) the procedure to be followed on a movement of excisable goods under suspension of excise duty; and

(h) guide levels to determine the quantity of an article subject to excise duty.

(2) Any regulations made under sub-article (1) may provide that any person who contravenes or fails to comply with any of those regulations shall be guilty of an offence, and such regulations may provide for the penalty of a fine (multa) not exceeding twenty-five thousand euro (€25,000) or an amount equal to three times the duty payable on any goods in respect of which the offence is committed, whichever shall be the higher, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to both such fine and imprisonment, in respect of any conviction.

(3) Where any regulations made under sub-article (1) do not provide for any punishment, any person who contravenes or fails to comply with any of those regulations shall be liable, on conviction, to a fine (multa) not exceeding twenty-five thousand euro (€25,000) or an amount equal to three times the duty payable on any goods in respect of which the offence is committed, whichever shall be the higher.

(4) The regulations contained in the Sixth Schedule to this Act shall be deemed to have been made under the powers contained under sub-article (1) and may be revoked and amended accordingly.

(5) The Minister may by regulations published in the Gazette add, amend, revoke or substitute the Schedules to this Act, or any of them, as may become necessary from time to time, and such amendments may also be made with an aim to ensure that the Customs Tariff Headings under which the respective excisable goods are classified conform with the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System 1983, as adopted and published by the Customs Co-operation Council: Provided that this authority shall not extend to cases in which its application results in a duty being prescribed in respect of any new article or in an increase in the rate of duty prescribed in respect of any article.