Valuation and Rating (Scotland) Act 1956

Section 25.

FIFTH SCHEDULE Transitory Provisions for Rating Gas Boards

PART I

Calculation of rateable value on which rates are to be assessed

1 The provisions of this Schedule shall have effect for the purpose of calculating in respect of the year 1957-58 and of each of the three following years, the rateable value of the lands and heritages which a Gas Board are to be treated as occupying as mentioned in subsection (1) of section twenty-five of this Act.

2 The total value of all the lands and heritages, other than excepted premises, belonging to or leased by each Gas Board, as ascertained by the Assessor of Public Undertakings (Scotland) (hereinafter referred to as " the Assessor ") for the year 1956-57, shall be the basic rateable valuation of that Board for the purposes of this Schedule.

3 Each Gas Board shall estimate and certify the total number of therms supplied by them to consumers in their area during the twelve months ending with the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and fifty-six, and such total number shall, for the purposes of this Schedule, be the standard number of therms of that Board.

4 (1) For the year 1957-58 and each of the three following years each Gas Board's basic rateable valuation shall be adjusted in accordance with the following provisions of this paragraph, and such basic rateable valuation as so adjusted shall be the rateable valuation of that Board's undertaking for that year.

(2) For each such year each Gas Board shall—

(a) estimate and certify the total number of therms supplied by the Board to consumers in their area during the twelve months ending with the thirty-first day of March falling within the immediately preceding year, and

(b) calculate and certify the amount by which that total exceeds, or falls short of, the Board's standard number of therms,

and the Board's basic rateable valuation shall be adjusted for that year by multiplying it by the fraction of which—

(i) the numerator is the Board's standard number of therms increased by one-fifth of the said excess or, as the case may be, decreased by one-fifth of the said deficiency, and

(ii) the denominator is the Board's standard number of therms.

5 (1) Each Gas Board's rateable valuation shall be apportioned in respect of the year 1957-58 and of each of the three following years among separately rated areas in the proportions in which the total value of all the lands and heritages, other than excepted premises, belonging to or leased by the Board was apportioned among such areas in respect of the year 1956-57 subject, however, to such adjustments in those proportions as may be necessary having regard to the following sub-paragraph,

(2) For the purpose of the apportionment in respect of any year of a Gas Board's rateable valuation for that year among separately rated areas, all such areas which are in existence at the commencement of the said year shall be deemed to have existed during the year 1956-57 and to have had the same boundaries during that year as they have at the commencement of the first-mentioned year.

6 The amount which, in accordance with the last foregoing paragraph, is allocated for any year to a separately rated area, in the case of a Gas Board, shall be the rateable value and the net annual value of the lands and heritages which that Gas Board is to be treated as occupying in that area for that year.

PART II

Supplementary Provisions

7 It shall be the duty of each Gas Board, before the first day of August in the year 1957-58 and in each of the three following years, to transmit to the Assessor a statement setting out particulars of all the matters estimated, calculated and certified for the purpose of computing any adjustment in the basic rateable valuation of that Board which falls to be made in that year under paragraph 4 of this Schedule.

8 On receipt of a statement under the last foregoing paragraph, the Assessor shall adjust the Gas Board's basic rateable valuation, calculate the rateable value of the lands and heritages which that: Board are to be treated as occupying during the year in question in each separately rated area, and shall enter such rateable values in the valuation roll to be made up by him and notify the amount thereof to the rating authority concerned and to the Board before the eighth day of September in that year.

9 The powers conferred on the Minister of Fuel and Power by subsection (6) of section six of the Gas Act, 1948, and by subsection (3) of section twenty-four of that Act (which authorise that Minister, in an order varying the area of a Gas Board, or transferring property between Gas Boards, to provide for certain matters arising out of the variation or transfer) shall include power, by an order made thereunder, to modify the application of Part I of this Schedule, and the preceding provisions of this Part of this Schedule, in the case of any Gas Board affected by the order.