Committee Reports > List of Committees > Joint > 1978 > Committee on the Secondary Legislation of the European Communities > Report No. 29 - Statutory Instruments [15]

APPENDIX V

Hydrocarbon Oil (Amendment) Regulations, 1977 [S.I. No. 382 of 1977]

An Rúnaí,

Oifig na gCoimisinéirí Ioncaim.

I am directed by Mr. Mark Clinton, T.D., Chairman of the Joint Committee on the Secondary Legislation of the European Communities to refer to the fact that in the Government’s Eleventh Report on Developments in the European Communities the Hydrocarbon Oil (Amendment) Regulations, 1977 [S.I. No. 382 of 1977] are included in the list of statutory instruments which were necessitated by the obligations of membership of the European Communities.

I am to request you to furnish for the information of the Joint Committee a memorandum explaining what Community obligations necessitated making the Regulations and commenting on the absence from the text of the instrument of any reference to the relevant Community legislation and on the fact that the appended explanatory note makes no reference to community obligations.

Cléireach an Chomhchoiste.

7 Meitheamh, 1978

Clerk to the Joint Committee,

Joint Committee on the Secondary

Legislation of the European Communities,

Leinster House,

Dublin, 2.

I am directed by the Revenue Commissioners to refer to your minute of 7 June, 1978 concerning the inclusion of a reference to the Hydrocarbon Oil (Amendment) Regulations, 1977 [S.I. No. 382 of 1977] in the Government’s Eleventh Report on Developments in the European Communities. A copy of the Regulations in question is attached for your information. As can be seen they provide for the metrication of certain control aspects of the excise duty on hydrocarbon oils. These provisions partnered the provisions in the Imposition of Duties (No. 234) (Excise Duties on Hydrocarbon Oils and Beer) Order, 1978, which, inter alia, metricated the duty rates on Hydrocarbon Oils. This metrication of the revenue hydrocarbon oil law was undertaken at the request of the oil industry in this country, which had completed its own metrication programme and was having some difficulty in operating a conversion system to comply with the imperial requirements of the revenue law.

The EEC relevance of the Regulations (and the Imposition of Duties Order) is to be found in Directive No. 71/354 of 18 October, 1971 (O.J. No. L243/29), as amended by Directive No. 76/770 of 27 July, 1976 (O.J. No. L262/204), which requires that the S.I. (metric) system of measurement be used for trade and administration and that other systems be phased out. The Department of Industry, Commerce and Energy is responsible for this Directive.

It is recognised that the imperial units, the gallon and the lb., with which the Regulations are concerned are among those units which, under the Directive, are likely to cease in the early 1980’s (at dates to be negotiated) and that the metrication programme of the oil industry is moving ahead of the strict letter of our current EEC obligations in this regard. Accordingly, it could be argued that the inclusion of the Regulations in the list of Statutory Instruments necessitated by obligations of the European Communities was not strictly necessary. However, the Commissioners’ intention in forwarding the Regulations for inclusion in the Eleventh Report was to be as informative as possible in the area of EEC related legislation. Any inconvenience caused to your Joint Committee in interpreting their relevance in the context of the Report is regretted.

12 June, 1978.