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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (27 February) . . Page.. 636 ..

MRS CARNELL - The answer to the Member's question is as follows:

(1) I wish to elaborate on the answer previously given to Mr Moore as part of Question No. 281. My answer was that "all religious institutions that have a lease of land in the ACT are exempt from the imposition of general rates". This statement is supported by the fact that religious institutions are considered to have a benevolent status and as such qualify for an exemption pursuant to Section 6(1)(b) of the Rates and Land Tax Act 1926. This provision allows an exemption to sites of benevolent institutions, irrespective of the permitted land use specified in the lease purpose clause. Sites of churches and other buildings used exclusively for public worship that are owned by a religious institution, qualify for an exemption of rates under either Section 6 (1)(c) or 6(1)(b) of the Act.

(2) Yes - As stated in my previous answer to the Member's question, religious institutions are considered to have a benevolent status and as such qualify for an exemption pursuant to Section 6(1)(b) of the Rates and Land Tax Act 1926.

(3) Yes - In cases where there is a site of a place of public worship included as part of a lease granted for mixed purposes, an exemption is granted where the leaseholder is a benevolent institution.

(4)(a), (b) & (c) The current rates and land tax computer system records all properties which have been granted an exemption from rates. It does not, however, categorise the properties by the exemption types requested and these list will take considerable time to compile. I have asked the Commissioner for ACT Revenue to provide the information in the format you require, however, due to other high priority work at present and the considerable manual effort necessary to compile a comprehensive listing, there will be a delay of about four weeks before the information can be provided.

(5) An estimate of the amount of revenue forgone by way of general rates exemptions is not available. Valuations are not commissioned for properties which are exempt from rates under Section 6(1)(b), 6(1)(c) or 6(1)(d) of the Act and as such the amount of rates that would be payable if the properties were not exempt cannot be calculated. The cost of obtaining valuations for these properties is significant. I am not prepared to authorise the use of considerable resources to answer the Member's question.

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