The Milk Development Council Order 1995

Charges for expenses

9.—(1) For the purposes of enabling them to meet their administrative and other expenses incurred or to be incurred in the exercise of their functions the Council may, with the approval of the Ministers and subject to paragraph (2) below, impose on every producer a charge at such a rate (not exceeding 0.05 pence per litre) in respect of each litre of milk produced and sold by him as they consider from time to time to be appropriate.

(2) Every charge imposed under this article shall be paid by each producer—

(a) in case A, to the agent who purchases the milk in respect of which the charge was imposed, the time for payment being the time at which the agent pays the producer for the milk, and

(b) in case B, to the Council at their office no later than 30 days after the end of the relevant period in which the milk in respect of which the charge was imposed was sold by the producer.

(3) Case A above applies to milk in respect of which—

(a) the Council have entered into an agreement with the purchaser of the milk from its producer providing for the purchaser to collect the charge from the producer as agent for the Council,

(b) the Council have given written notice to the producer that they have entered into that agreement and the notice directs him to pay the charge to the purchaser, and

(c) the notice has not been withdrawn or replaced by a subsequent notice,

and case B above applies to other milk in respect of which a charge is imposed under this article.

(4) Where two or more persons jointly carry on business in the industry, they shall, for the purpose of calculating any charge payable by them in respect of milk produced and sold in the joint business, be treated as constituting a single person.

(5) Every charge imposed under this article shall if not paid in accordance with this article be recoverable as a debt.

(6) For the purposes of this article each relevant period except the first is a period of 6 months beginning on 1st April or 1st October and the first begins on the first day of the month immediately following the month on which this Order comes into force and ends immediately before the beginning of the next relevant period.