The Excise Duty Act (CAP. 382) provides that payment of Excise Duty, for certain commodities, is to be effected by the 15^th day of the following month as from the date of placement on the market, and, for other commodities, payment of Excise Duty is to be effected on the last Sunday of the month.

Thus, economic operators are expected to come forward with their next payments on the 15th of April 2020, or on the 26th of April 2020.

Due to the current prevailing circumstances, economic operators are finding it very difficult to honour such payments. For this reason, the Customs Department, by means of this subsidiary legislation, is proposing a deferment of payments. Thus, payments which are due on the 15th of April 2020, will be deferred to the 15th of June 2020 and payments due on the 26th of April 2020, will be deferred to the 28 of June 2020, while payments which are due on the 15th of May 2020, will be deferred to the 15th of July 2020 and payments due on the 31st of May 2020, will be deferred to the 26th of July 2020.

The Economic operators will be relieved through this measure of being allowed to postpone their payments by two whole months, that is, from April 2020 to June 2020, and from May 2020 to July 2020.