Matches and Mechanical Lighters Duties Act 1979
Matches and MechanicalLighters Duties Act 1979
1979 CHAPTER 6
An Act to consolidate the enactments relating to the excise duties on matches and mechanical lighters.
[22nd February 1979]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Matches
1 Excise duty on matches.
(1) There shall be charged on matches—
(a ) imported into the United Kingdom; or
(b ) manufactured in the United Kingdom and sent out from the premises of a manufacturer of matches,
a duty of excise at the rate of 0.49 for every 7,200 matches (and so in proportion for any less number of matches).
(2) For the purposes of the duty chargeable under subsection (1) above, a match which has more than one point of ignition shall be reckoned as so many matches as there are points of ignition.
2 Licences to manufacture matches.
(1) No person shall manufacture matches unless he holds an excise licence for that purpose granted under this section.
(2) A licence granted under this section shall expire on the 31st March next after it is granted.
(3) On any licence granted under this section there shall be charged an excise licence duty of 1.
(4) If any person manufactures matches otherwise than under and in accordance with a licence granted under this section, he shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty of 50 and the matches shall be liable to forfeiture.
3 Regulations about matches.
(1) The Commissioners may, with a view to the protection of the revenue, make regulations—
(a ) regulating the manufacture of matches and the removal of matches from the premises of a licensed manufacturer;
(b ) for securing and collecting the excise duty chargeable on matches manufactured in the United Kingdom;
(c ) providing for the remission or repayment of excise duty on defective matches;
(d ) for authorising the removal from the premises of a licensed manufacturer without payment of excise duty of matches removed for exportation or shipment as stores or for warehousing, or removed to other premises of that manufacturer or to premises of another licensed manufacturer;
(e ) for securing that there is on every container of matches a notification of the contents, or the minimum or maximum contents, of the container.
(2) In subsection (1) above ‘licensed manufacturer’ means a person who holds a licence granted under section 2 above.
(3) If any person contravenes or fails to comply with any regulation made under subsection (1) above, he shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty of 50, and any article in respect of which the offence was committed shall be liable to forfeiture.
(4) The power to make regulations under subsection (1) above shall be exercisable by statutory instrument and any statutory instrument by which the power is exercised shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.
Mechanical lighters
4 Mechanical lighters.
(1) For the purposes of this Act ‘mechanical lighter’ means any portable contrivance intended to provide a means of ignition, whether by spark, flame or otherwise, being a mechanical, chemical, electrical or similar contrivance.
(2) For the purposes of this Act—
(a ) any component which is, in accordance with section 5 below, the prescribed component of a mechanical lighter; or
(b ) any assembly which includes such a component,
shall be deemed to be a mechanical lighter; and any reference in this Act to a manufacturer of mechanical lighters includes a reference to a person by whom any prescribed component of a mechanical lighter, or assembly which includes such a component, has been manufactured in the course of a business carried on by him, notwithstanding that he has not carried on the manufacture at a time when such a component or assembly is deemed to be a mechanical lighter.
5 The prescribed component.
(1) Until otherwise provided by an order under subsection (2) below, for the purposes of section 4(2) above the prescribed component of an imported mechanical lighter shall be the body.
(2) Subject to subsection (1) above, in section 4(2) above the ‘prescribed component’, in relation to a mechanical lighter falling within any class or description of mechanical lighters, means such one of the component parts of a lighter of that class or description as the Treasury may by order designate for this purpose as being the component part or one of the component parts in such a lighter least likely to require replacement.
(3) The power to make orders under subsection (2) above shall be exercisable by statutory instrument and any statutory instrument by which the power is exercised shall be laid before the House of Commons after being made.
(4) A statutory instrument made under subsection (2) above which extends the incidence of duty shall cease to have effect on the expiration of a period of 28 days from the date on which it is made unless at some time before the expiration of that period it has been approved by a resolution of the House of Commons, but without prejudice to anything previously done under it or to the making of a new order.
In reckoning any such period no account shall be taken of any time during which Parliament is dissolved or prorogued or during which the House of Commons is adjourned for more than 4 days.
(5) A statutory instrument made under subsection (2) above which does not extend the incidence of duty shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of the House of Commons.
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