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Penalty Interest Rates Act 1998

SAMOA

PENALTY INTEREST RATES ACT 1998

Arrangement of Provisions

1. Short title and commencement
2. Act to bind the State
3. Application
4. Common Law to Apply
5. Limitation on Penalty Interest Rates
   

PENALTY INTEREST RATES ACT 1998

1998 No. 15

AN ACT to make provision in relation to the application of penalty interest rates in contracts.

[Assent and commencement date: 19 June 1998]

BE IT ENACTED by the Legislative Assembly of Samoa in Parliament assembled as follows:

1. Short title and commencement-(1) This Act may be cited as the Penalty Interest Rates Act 1998.
(2) This Act comes into force on the date it is assented to by the Head of State, and in accordance with section 3 shall have retrospective effect.

2. Act to bind the State - This Act binds the State and applies to contracts in which the State, or any of its agencies, is a contracting party.

3. Application-(1) Subject to subsection (2), this Act applies to all contracts entered into in Samoa before or after this Act comes into force.
(2) This Act does not apply to a contract in respect of which a Court has made a final determination as to the rights of the contracting parties.
(3) For the purposes of subsection (2), no final determination shall be considered to have been made until all rights of appeal have been exhausted, or precluded by the effluxion of time in accordance with law.
(4) This Act does not apply to a contract the sole purpose of which is the lending of money.

4. Common Law to apply - The principles of the common law rendering unenforceable any penalty provision in any contract apply where a contract stipulates that penalty interest is payable on unpaid monies due under the contract.

5. Limitation on Penalty Interest Rates-(1) Where a contract stipulates that penalty interest is payable on unpaid monies due under the contract, such provision is unenforceable to the extent that the rate of penalty interest under the contract exceeds 14% per annum or such other figure as may be prescribed by Regulations.
(2) Regulations made under subsection (1) may prescribe different penalty interest rates for different types of contract or transaction under a contract.

REVISION NOTES 2008-2011

This Act has been revised under section 5 of the Revision and Publication of Laws Act 2008.

The following general revisions have been made:

(a) Amendments have been made to conform to modern drafting styles and to use modern language as applied in the laws of Samoa.

(b) Insertion of the commencement date

(c) Other minor editing has been done in accordance with the lawful powers of the Attorney General, where appropriate:

(i) “shall have application/no application” changed to “apply” or “does not apply”.

There were no amendments made to this Act since the publication of the Consolidated and Revised Statutes of Samoa 2007.
This Act has been revised in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011by the Attorney General under the authority of the Revision and Publication of Laws Act 2008 and is the official version of this Act as at 31 December 2011. It is an offence to publish this Act without approval or to make any unauthorised change to an electronic version of this Act.

Aumua Ming Leung Wai
Attorney General of Samoa

Revised and consolidated in 2008 by Graham Bruce Powell under the supervision of Teleiai Lalotoa Sinaalamaimaleula Mulitalo (Parliamentary Counsel)

Revised in 2009, 2010 and 2011 by the Legislative Drafting Division under the supervision of Papalii Malietau Malietoa (Parliamentary Counsel).

The Penalty Interest Rates Act 1998 is administered by the Office of the Attorney General.