44-6-109 - Inspection fees Condition for license Reports.
44-6-109. Inspection fees Condition for license Reports.
(a) An inspection fee at the rate of ten cents (10¢) per ton shall be paid on commercial feed manufactured in excess of five hundred (500) tons per licensed commercial feed facility per calendar year and distributed in this state; provided, that the inspection fees shall be applied against the annual license fee imposed by § 44-6-104, and no additional inspection fees shall be paid until the inspection fees imposed on a licensed commercial feed facility exceed the amount of the annual license fee. The inspection fee shall be paid by the commercial feed facility that distributes the commercial feed to the consumer, subject to the following:
(1) No fee shall be paid on a commercial feed if the payment has been made by a previous distributor;
(2) No fee shall be paid on customer-formula feeds if the inspection fee is paid on the commercial feeds that are used as ingredients in the customer-formula feeds;
(3) No fee shall be paid on commercial feeds that are used as ingredients for the manufacture of commercial feeds that are registered. If the fee has already been paid, credit shall be given for the payment; and
(4) No fee shall be paid by contract feeders.
(b) In the case of distillers' wet grains and other distillers' by-products containing more than seventy-five percent (75%) moisture distributed without further processing to the final purchaser's livestock, the inspection fee shall be one cent (1¢) per ton.
(c) All licenses shall be conditioned on the applicant agreeing to keep such records as may be necessary to indicate accurately the tonnage and kinds of commercial feeding stuffs sold, and as are satisfactory to the commissioner, and granting the commissioner, or the commissioner's duly authorized representative, permission to examine the records and verify the statement of tonnage. Failure to make an accurate statement of tonnage or to pay the inspection fee or to otherwise comply as provided herein shall constitute sufficient cause for the cancellation of the license.
(d) The report shall be under oath, on forms furnished by the commissioner, and the reports shall be filed with the department of agriculture. The report of tonnage and inspection fee shall be due and payable semiannually, on January 31 and July 31, covering the tonnage of commercial feeding stuffs sold during the preceding six (6) months based on a calendar year. If the report is not filed and the inspection fee paid by the tenth day following the due date, or if the report is false, the commissioner shall revoke the license, and if the inspection fee is unpaid after the ten-day grace period, the amount due shall bear a penalty of ten percent (10%), which shall be added to the inspection fee due and shall constitute a debt and become the basis of judgment against the securities or bonds hereinafter referred to; provided, that no license shall be revoked until the licensee has first been given an opportunity to be heard before the commissioner in order to pay the fees required under this chapter.
(e) Fees collected shall constitute a fund for the payment of the costs of inspection, sampling, and analysis, and other expenses necessary for the administration of this chapter.
[Acts 1972, ch. 488, § 9; T.C.A., § 44-1126; Acts 1980, ch. 538, § 1; 1997, ch. 55, § 7; 2008, ch. 787, § 1.]