House of Representatives
Trade Support Loans Amendment (Improving Administration) Bill 2019
Explanatory Memorandum
(Circulated by authority of the Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business, Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash)OUTLINE
The Trade Support Loans Amendment (Improving Administration) Bill 2019 amends the Trade Support Loans Act 2014.
The amendments improve the administration of the Trade Support Loans Program by:
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- Empowering the Secretary to provide for 'offsetting' arrangements where an amount is wrongly paid as an instalment of trade support loan (TSL). As an alternative to the department recovering the amount as an overpayment debt, the Secretary will be able to make determinations that:
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- the amount is taken to be a TSL payment; and
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- a later payable instalment of TSL is to be reduced.
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- Providing the Secretary with a discretion to extend the period for notifying a change of address.
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- Aligning the minimum periods for TSL recipients to notify the Secretary of information under the Act.
FINANCIAL IMPACT STATEMENT
The proposed administrative amendments are not expected to have any financial impact.