Citation and Commencement

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Air Passenger Duty and Other Indirect Taxes (Interest Rate) (Amendment) Regulations 2000 and shall come into force on 1st April 2000.

Amendment

2.The Air Passenger Duty and Other Indirect Taxes (Interest Rate) Regulations 1998( 3 ) shall be amended in accordance with the following regulations.

3. Regulation 2 shall be amended as follows–

(a) in paragraph (1), in sub-paragraph (a) of the definition of “established rate”, for “7 per cent.” there shall be substituted “6 per cent. ”,

(b) in paragraph (2)(d) for “Midland Bank p.l.c.” there shall be substituted “ HSBC Bank p.l.c.”.

4. For regulation 4 there shall be substituted–

“ Applicable rate of interest payable to the Commissioners of Customs and Excise in connection with excise duties, insurance premium tax, VAT , landfill tax, and customs duty

4. —(1) For the purposes of–

(a) paragraph 7 of Schedule 6 to the Finance Act 1994 ( 4 ) ,

(b) paragraph 21 of Schedule 7 to that Act,

(c) section 74 of the Value Added Tax Act 1994 ( 5 ) ,

(d) paragraph 26 of Schedule 5 to the Finance Act 1996,

(e) paragraph 17 of Schedule 5 to the Finance Act 1997 ( 6 ) , and

(f) section 126 of the Finance Act 1999,

the rate applicable under section 197 shall, subject to paragraph (2) below, be 8·5 per cent. per annum.

(2) Where, on any reference day after the coming into force of these Regulations, the reference rate found on that day differs from the established rate, the rate applicable under section 197 of the Finance Act 1996 for the purposes of the enactments referred to in paragraph (1) above shall, from the next operative day, be the percentage per annum determined in accordance with the formula specified in paragraph (3) below.

(3) The formula specified in this paragraph is–

5. For regulation 5 there shall be substituted–

“ Applicable rate of interest payable by the Commissioners of Customs and Excise in connection with air passenger duty, insurance premium tax, VAT, landfill tax, and customs duty

5. —(1) For the purposes of–

(a) paragraph 9 of Schedule 6 to the Finance Act 1994,

(b) paragraph 22 of Schedule 7 to that Act,

(c) section 78 of the Value Added Tax Act 1994,

(d) paragraph 29 of Schedule 5 to the Finance Act 1996, and

(e) section 127 of the Finance Act 1999,

the rate applicable under section 197 of the Finance Act 1996 shall be 5 per cent. per annum.

(2) Where, on a reference day after the coming into force of these Regulations, the reference rate found on that date differs from the established rate, the rate applicable under section 197 for the purposes of the enactments referred to in paragraph (1) above shall, from the next operative day, be the percentage per annum determined in accordance with the formula specified in paragraph (3) below.

(3) The formula specified in this paragraph is–

6. In Table 7 of regulation 8, for “16th October 1992” there shall be substituted “16th October 1991”.

7. After regulation 8, there shall be inserted the following–

“ Minimum amount of interest payable in connection with customs duty

9. Where interest charged on arrears of customs duty payable to the Commissioners of Customs and Excise is computed in accordance with section 126(2) of the Finance Act 1999 and, in any case, is less than £25 the amount of interest charged in that case is (instead of being the amount so computed) to be taken to be £25. ”