DMIRS adopts penalties for late royalty payments

The Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS) is reminding tenement holders of its intention to enforce financial penalties for late royalty payments.

Any unpaid or late royalty payments are considered a breach of the Mining Act 1978 (the Act) and have previously resulted in a notice of intent to forfeit the lease until the royalty payment is received.

Under the Act, there is an alternative to forfeiture in the form of imposing a penalty, which must not exceed $75,000 if the lessee is an individual or $150,000 if the lessee is a body corporate.

The financial penalty, which has been introduced for late or unpaid payments due for the March 2018 quarter, is similar to other penalties imposed by the department for late rental payments or late Mining Rehabilitation Fund report submissions and is in lieu of forfeiting the mining lease.

DMIRS’ Acting General Manager Financial Compliance, Resource and Environmental Compliance Division, Vince D’Angelo said Industry has been made aware of the change and tenement holders have been advised.

“We wrote to tenement holders to inform them of the change and we are pleased to report the number of late payments has already reduced from six per cent in 2017 to two per cent in 2018.”

Mr D’Angelo said a large proportion of late payments are received within a few days of the due date, however some can be several weeks late.

“Implementing a financial penalty will deter the regular late payers and reinforce to tenement holders the importance of ensuring royalty payments are made on time,” said Mr D’Angelo.

DMIRS will issue five penalty notices for late March payments this month and will be advised that failure to pay the fine on or before the due dates will result in automatic forfeiture of the lease as per Section 97 (6) of the Act.

To understand more about how the penalty rate will be calculated, please visit the department’s website or email royalty.returns@dmirs.wa.gov.au.