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Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority (Budget Amendment) Act 2015

REPUBLIC OF FIJI

Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority (Budget Amendment) Act 2015

ACT NO. 26 OF 2015

I assent.
J. K. KONROTE
President

[23 November 2015]

AN ACT
TO AMEND THE FIJI REVENUE AND CUSTOMS AUTHORITY ACT 1998

ENACTED by the Parliament of the Republic of Fiji—

Short title and commencement

1.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority (Budget Amendment) Act 2015 and shall come into force on 1 January 2016.

(2) In this Act, the Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority Act 1998 shall be referred to as the "Principal Act".

New section inserted

2. The Principal Act is amended by inserting the following new provisions after section 51—

"Protection of informers
51A.—(1) This section applies to this Act and any other written law under which a tax, tariff, fee, duty or levy is imposed, if responsibility for the general administration of that tax, tariff, fee, duty or levy is conferred upon the Chief Executive Officer.
(2) Subject to subsection (4), any person involved in any proceedings or investigation with regard to the laws referred to in subsection (1) must not—

• (a) disclose the name or address of any informer who has given information with respect to an offence against any law referred to in subsection (1); or
• (b) answer any question if the answer would lead, or would tend to lead, to the discovery of the name, address or identity of such informer, and the informer is not a witness in the proceedings.

(3) If any record which is in evidence or liable to inspection in any proceedings or investigation contains an entry in which any such informer is named or described or which might lead to his or her discovery, the court must cause all such entries to be concealed from view or to be obliterated so far as may be necessary to protect the information or such person from discovery.
(4) If in any proceedings before the court under the laws referred to in subsection (1), the court, after full enquiry into the case, is satisfied that an informer wilfully made a material statement which the informer knew to be false or did not believe to be true, the court may permit enquiry and require full disclosure concerning the informer.
(5) If in any other proceedings the court is of the opinion that justice cannot be fully done between the parties without disclosure of the name of an informer or another person who assisted in any investigation or the proceedings under the laws referred to in subsection (1), the court may permit enquiry and require full disclosure concerning the informer.
Rewards for informers
51B. The Chief Executive Officer with the approval of the Authority, may upon the recovery of any tax, tariff, fee, duty or levy short fall or short payment, award a payment as may be prescribed by Regulations to any person through whose information or evidence the short fall or short payment has been recovered."

Passed by the Parliament of the Republic of Fiji this 20th day of November 2015.