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Digest No. 1692

Road User Charges Amendment Bill 2009

Date of Introduction: 23 June 2009
Portfolio: Portfolio name
Select Committee: As at 01 July, 1st Reading not held.
Published: 01 July 2009Prepared by John McSoriley BA LL.B, BarristerLegislative AnalystP: (04) 471-9626 (Ext. 9626)F: (04) 471-1250 Caution: This Digest was prepared to assist consideration of the Bill by members of Parliament. It has no official status.Although every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, it should not be taken as a complete or authoritative guide to the Bill. Other sources should be consulted to determine the subsequent official status of the Bill.

Purpose

The aim of the Bill is to amend the Road User Charges Act 1977 (the Act) to enable regulations to be made exempting light electric motor vehicles from road user charges, to provide for 42 days' notice of road user charges increases and for the expiration of heavy vehicle road user charges licences one month after an increase comes into effect.

Background

The reasons for these changes are:

  • to " ... encourage the uptake of light electric motor vehicles, which are expected to improve the efficiency of the motor vehicle fleet, decrease reliance on imported fossil fuels, improve energy security, and reduce vehicular emissions affecting air quality and greenhouse gas levels"; and
  • by providing that heavy vehicle road user charge licences will expire one month after an increase comes into effect to minimise potential revenue loss caused by pre-purchasing of road user charges by the heavy motor vehicle industry following the notification of a road user charge increase [1]   .

Main Provisions

Timing of Order in Council

The Bill provides that an Order in Council increasing rates of road user charges comes into force 42 days after the date of its notification in the Gazette, or on any later date specified in the order (Part 2, Clause 5 amending Section 20 of the Act by inserting new subsection (1A)).

Certain distance licences or supplementary licences

The Bill provides that if a road user charge rate specified in Schedule 3 of the Act is increased under Section 20 (see above) or by any other Act, a distance licence or supplementary licence issued in relation to a motor vehicle whose gross laden weight is more than 3.5 tonnes before the increase comes into force is no longer valid after the expiry of one month from the date of the increase (Part 2, Clause 6 inserting New Section 21).

Regulations

The Bill provides that regulations may be made to exempt light electric motor vehicles from road user charges under Part 1 of the Act (Part 2, Clause 7, amending Section 24 of the Act by inserting new subsection (1)(ga)). The Bill also provides that regulations exempting light electric motor vehicles must specify a date on which the exemption expires (Part 2, Clause 7, amending Section 24 of the Act by inserting new subsection (1A)).

Copyright: © NZ Parliamentary Library, 2009
Except for educational purposes permitted under the Copyright Act 1994, no part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including information storage and retrieval systems, other than by Members of Parliament in the course of their official duties, without the consent of the Parliamentary Librarian, Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.This document may also be available through commercial online services and may be viewed and reproduced in accordance with the conditions applicable to those services.

  1. Road User Charges Amendment Bill, 2009 No 51-1, Explanatory note, General policy statement, p. 1.   [back]