43Amount of fuel security services payment

43 Amount of fuel security services payment

(1) The amount of fuel security services payment payable to a person for a quarter is the amount worked out in accordance with the following method statement.

Method statement

Step 1. For each FSSP fuel refined by the person at the committed refinery in the quarter:

(a) work out the number of litres refined; and

(b) multiply that number of litres by the number of cents per litre prescribed, or worked out using a method prescribed, by the rules for that FSSP fuel.

Step 2. Add up the amounts worked out under step 1 for each FSSP fuel.

(2) The number of cents per litre for an FSSP fuel prescribed, or worked out using a method prescribed, by the rules: (a) must not be a number higher than 1.8; and (b) may be 0. (3) The rules may make provision in relation to determining the number of litres of FSSP fuel refined by a person at a committed refinery. (4) The Minister may, by notifiable instrument, make guidelines in relation to the prescribing of, or the prescribing of a method for working out, a number of cents per litre for an FSSP fuel. The Minister must take any guidelines into account in making rules for the purposes of subsection (1). (5) In making rules for the purposes of subsections (1) and (3) and guidelines under subsection (4), the Minister must have regard to: (a) in relation to fuel security services payment payable for quarters ending on or before 30 June 2030—the determination made by the Minister under subsection 44(1); and (b) the principle that (subject to paragraph (2)(a)) the amount of fuel security services payment paid to a person for quarters ending in the person’s commitment period should be guided by the margin that is sufficient to ensure that refineries operating in Australia over the person’s commitment period do not make a loss. (6) For the purposes of paragraph (5)(b) and section 44, the margin sufficient to ensure that refineries operating in Australia do not make a loss is the excess of the sale price of FSSP fuels and fuel oils refined by the refineries over the costs of feedstock and transport in relation to FSSP fuels, expressed in cents per litre. (7) For the purposes of subsection (6), the following matters are relevant to working out the margin sufficient to ensure that refineries operating in Australia do not make a loss over a period: (a) government payments and benefits other than fuel security services payment in relation to the period; (b) costs of operating the refinery incurred in relation to the period; (c) capital expenditure in relation to the period; (d) any other matters the Minister considers relevant. The Minister may rely on estimates or other indicators of a matter if the Minister considers it appropriate to do so.