Fees Act 1920
2020 REVISED EDITION
This revised edition incorporates all amendments up to and including 1 December 2021 and comes into operation on 31 December 2021
An Act to provide for the levy of fees and payments for licences.
[28 November 1921]
Short title
1.  This Act is the Fees Act 1920.
Minister for Finance may frame tables of fees
2.  The Minister for Finance may by order frame tables of fees, and of payments for licences, permits and otherwise leviable or to be leviable, in the subordinate courts of civil and criminal jurisdiction, and in all public offices and departments.
Publication
3.  Every such table of fees and of payments for licences and permits shall be published in the Gazette and shall have effect from the date of the publication and shall be presented to Parliament as soon as possible after publication.
Officers may decline to act till payment
4.  The officer of any court, public office or department required to do anything for which a fee or payment is chargeable under this Act may decline to do that thing until the fee is paid or the payment is made.
Fees, etc., recoverable as fines before a Magistrate’s Court
5.—(1)  All fees and payments for licences and permits prescribed in any such order shall be recoverable when not otherwise provided for by summary procedure before a Magistrate’s Court in the manner provided for the recovery of fines and penalties before a Magistrate’s Court, on complaint by or on behalf of the officer to whom the fees ought to have been paid or the payment ought to have been made.
(2)  A certificate by such officer that the fee has not been paid, or that the payment has not been made shall be held to be prima facie proof of non-payment.
Payments by stamps
6.  The Minister for Finance may by order declare that all or any fees or payments for licences or permits in any of the subordinate courts of civil and criminal jurisdiction, public offices and departments so fixed, or to be fixed, shall be payable by means of stamps under any written law in force relating to the collection of stamp duties.
Minister for Finance may declare fees and payments to be payable in stamps or money
7.  The Minister for Finance may by order declare that all or any fees or payments in any of the public offices and departments now made payable by means of stamps shall be paid in money, notwithstanding any Act in force to the contrary.
Fees, etc., prescribed by written law
8.  Nothing in this Act shall be held to affect the amount of any fees or payments leviable or chargeable under any written law in force when express provision is made as to the amount of such fees or payments in that written law.
Remission of fees
9.  Notwithstanding section 8, it shall be lawful for the Minister for Finance to remit wholly or in part, and either generally or in any particular case or class of cases, any fee or other payment prescribed under this Act or under any other written law, and the Minister for Finance may in framing any table of fees or other payments provide for the remission of any such fees or other payments and may specify therein the person by whom remissions shall be granted.