Licences, claims and payments—fuel retailers

Previously, you could apply for a fuel retailer licence by using an original form. You had to contact us to get the application form, and needed to provide your:

• name
• postal address
• contact phone number.

You can no longer apply for a fuel retailer licence, as the Fuel Subsidy Scheme was abolished on 1 July 2009.

As a licensed retailer, you needed to lodge a claim each month. We had to receive your claim for the previous month no later than the 14th day of the month.

If you did not comply with the conditions of your retailer's licence, you could have been penalised or prosecuted. You may also have been liable for interest on any debt. Interest was charged at a rate of 20% per year.

You would have received a personalised claim form with your licence and a bank details confirmation statement. Subsequent forms were sent with your monthly statement of account. The claim forms were barcoded with your licence information. You could not copy or share these forms with other retailers.

Claims were made by completing a Form QFSS 13—Retailer claim form.

Provisional subsidies were paid electronically into your nominated account 5 days before the sales month for which the payment was made. Payments were made at the same time your subsidy claim for the previous month was adjusted.

Retailer’s claims were reviewed at the end of each financial year to ensure that payments were in line with actual sales, and to determine whether any adjustments were necessary. All retailers had to lodge an annual return form at the end of a financial year. However, we could adjust your provisional subsidy at any time.

To prevent retailers from having to repay overpaid provisional subsidies, they needed to tell us:

• when any of their sites changed (started or stopped trading)
• the date they stopped trading (if applicable)
• if their bank details changed.

Calculating the payments (with example)

For most retailers:

• your first and second monthly payments were equal to 1/12 of the retail sales (in litres) that you made during the previous financial year, multiplied by an indexation factor and the subsidy rate
• future monthly payments were adjusted to reflect your actual sales for earlier months every time you submitted your monthly claim form, by reconciling the difference between what you were paid in advance for a particular month against the amount of subsidy you claimed for that month.

Example

Initial provisional payment for December 2008—$12,500
Retail sales made in December 2008—$14,000

1. On 25 November 2008, you received a provisional subsidy payment of $12,500 for expected retail sales in the month of December.
2. On 14 January 2009, you lodged a subsidy claim for the retail sales you made during December 2008, totalling $14,000.
3. On 26 January 2009, you received a payment of $14,000, which reflected a provisional subsidy payment of $12,500 for expected sales in the month of February 2009 plus a $1,500 adjustment for actual December 2008 sales.