(35 ILCS 640/2-2)
Sec. 2-2.
Findings and intent.
The General Assembly finds
that the deregulation and restructuring of the electric
utility industry in this State mandated and implemented by
this amendatory Act of 1997, including the unbundling of
services and the authorization of competition in the provision
of those services such that consumers may in the future
transact with multiple providers to obtain the services that
were formerly provided by a single franchised monopoly
supplier of electricity, renders the system of taxation
embodied in the Public Utilities Revenue Act impracticable and
infeasible. The General Assembly further finds that the
deregulation and restructuring of the electric utility
industry necessitate changes to the existing system of
taxation in order to preserve revenue neutrality in tax
collections for the State of Illinois, to avoid placing any
supplier engaged in the business of distributing, supplying,
furnishing, selling, transmitting or delivering electricity at
a competitive disadvantage, to minimize additional
administrative costs and burdens of collection, and to avoid
the imposition of increased tax burdens on individual
consumers of electricity, particularly residential electric
users virtually all of whom, pursuant to Section 2 of the
Public Utilities Revenue Act, presently bear the economic
burden of the tax imposed thereunder at the rate of .32 cents
per kilowatt-hour distributed, supplied, furnished, sold,
transmitted or delivered to them. The General Assembly
further finds that to change the current rates at which non-residential users
bear the economic burden of the Public
Utilities Revenue Tax, thereby resulting in increases in the
amount of tax for which non-residential users bear the
economic burden, could impose additional cost burdens on
businesses in this State and adversely affect economic
development and business retention in Illinois unless such
users are provided options for paying an excise tax on the
basis of purchase price. The
General Assembly therefore finds that there is a compelling public need
to modify the system of taxation embodied in the Public
Utilities Revenue Act by repealing the tax imposed by Section
2 of that Act and imposing this electricity excise tax so as
to:
(1) Impose the electricity excise tax on the |
| privilege of electric use measured by the kilowatt-hours delivered to the purchaser;
|
|
(2) As part of this amendatory Act of 1997, repeal
|
| the tax imposed by Section 2-202 of the Public Utilities Act as applicable to electric utilities and establish the rates of tax imposed under the electricity excise tax in order to collect substantially the same amount of revenue as was collected under Section 2-202 of that Act; and
|
|
(3) Allow non-residential consumers of electricity to
|
| elect to register with the Department of Revenue as self-assessing purchasers and to pay the electricity excise tax directly to the Department at a rate which is established as a percentage of such consumer's purchase price for electricity distributed, supplied, furnished, sold, transmitted or delivered to the purchaser.
|
|
(Source: P.A. 90-561, eff. 8-1-98.)
|