Newsrelease

December 19, 1997
Edmonton, Alberta

Province to conduct review of Alberta Royalty Tax Credit

The Alberta Government will conduct a review of the Alberta Royalty Tax Credit (ARTC) in 1998, Energy Minister Stephen West announced today.

The current program provides a credit that varies between 75 per cent and 25 per cent of royalties depending on a blended gas and oil price. The review is an opportunity to set out better targeted objectives for a smaller program and is intended to deal with administrative difficulties.

"We’re going to see if we can sharpen the focus of this program," West said.

ARTC, as it stands, is complicated for the government to administer and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for industry to comply with the program requirements. That’s why the second objective of the review is to simplify the administration of the ARTC.

"We want to cut through the red tape so that we can have an administratively friendly program with clearly defined goals," said Provincial Treasurer Stockwell Day.

Details explaining how the review and stakeholder consultation will proceed will be released in the new year. Proposed changes to the legislation will be introduced in the legislature during the 1999 session. Changes to the program will be effective no later than January 1, 2001.

For more information, please contact:

Trish Filevich
Director of Communications
Alberta Treasury
Telephone (780) 427-5364
e-mail address: webmaster@treas.gov.ab.ca

OR:
Cheryl MacKenzie
A/Director of Communications
Alberta Energy
Telephone (780) 427-0189

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