Statutory interest is payable by the Department to the trader
in certain cases of official error or maladministration. A claim
for statutory interest should be processed by the office which made
the decision giving rise to the claim.
For APD, statutory interest falls within the scope of the
unjust enrichment reimbursement scheme - see
APD11000 for details.
On receipt of a claim, which must be in writing, you should
record the date of receipt and details of the claim. Failure to
process a claim within a reasonable period can give rise to a
justifiable claim for additional statutory interest to cover any
period of unreasonable delay.
The circumstances of a trader’s claim should be
examined thoroughly to establish whether there was official error
or maladministration.
If the conclusion you reach is that there are no grounds for
the claim, the trader should be advised in writing. An explanation
should be given as to why there is no entitlement.
A formal claim should be made by the aircraft operator no
later than 3 years after the end of the applicable period to which
it relates.
The period on which statutory interest is due, the
‘applicable period’, is defined as “from the date
when payment was received by Customs to the date when the payment
of the amount on which interest is payable is authorised by
Customs”.
From this period you may deduct reasonable enquiry time
between the trader being advised of the matters needing
clarification and his adequate response. Reminders should be sent
to traders who do not respond so that we can evidence that all
reasonable steps have been taken to deal with the matter.
You may also exclude from the interest period, the time you
take in deciding whether to make any enquiries with the trader.
The CAT has a computer package which will calculate statutory
interest automatically on input of the period(s) and amounts of
APD. The correct rates of interest due are already programmed into
the system.
Statutory interest should be calculated on the net amount of
air Passenger Duty due to the trader in respect of the
“defined period”, had the error or maladministration
not occurred.
Refer to
APD11300 for the correct procedure to
follow for the issue of statutory interest.
