(1)All rates leviable by a rating authority throughout the whole area of that authority whether under the provisions of a public general Act or of a local Act shall be levied and recovered as one rate to be known as the consolidated rate of the area of such rating authority, and such consolidated rate shall be divided between owners and occupiers in the same proportions as the total amount of the separate rates would have been divided between owners and occupiers had they been separately levied:
Provided that—
(a)except so far as the Secretary of State by order so directs, this subsection shall not apply to water rates leviable under the provisions of any local Act, which water rates shall continue to be leviable as separate rates; and
(b)where statutory provision is made in the case of any lands and heritages for a total or partial exemption from any rate included in the consolidated rate, the Secretary of State may, on the application of the rating authority or of any person interested, by order, provide that in lieu of such exemption only such portion of the consolidated rate as is specified in the order shall be leviable in respect of the said lands and heritages and the statutory provision shall have effect subject to the provisions of any such order.
(2)The total monies raised by the consolidated rate and all other revenues receivable by the rating authority shall be paid in the case of a burgh into a fund to be called " the burgh fund " and the expenditure of the town council payable out of rates for each branch of expenditure shall be defrayed out of such fund.
(3)Except where otherwise provided with respect to any rate, all rates shall be payable by owners and occupiers in equal proportions.
(4)Every demand note in respect of the consolidated rate shall, instead of showing the amount in the pound of or in respect of each separate rate, show the amount of the expenditure under each of the branches prescribed by the Secretary of State which is being defrayed out of the said rate and grants under Part III of this Act, and subsection (2) of section sixty-two of the Act of 1889 and subsection (1) of section twenty-two of the Act of 1926 (which relate to demand notes) shall have effect accordingly.
(5)Any enactment imposing a limit on the amount per pound of any rate to which the provisions of subsection (1) of this section apply shall be construed as if the limit imposed thereby were a limitation of the amount of the expenditure under the appropriate branch to be defrayed in any financial year out of rates and grants under Part III of this Act to a sum representing the produce of a rate of the amount specified in the enactment on the gross annual valuation of the area to which the expenditure relates.
(6)Subsection (5) of section sixty-two of the Act of 1889 (which relates to the remedies and provisions for recovery of rates under that Act) shall apply to the consolidated rate leviable under this section by a county council.
(7)In the case of a burgh not being a burgh to which the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892, applies, the statutory provisions applicable to the burgh relating to the collection and recovery of rates, including, without prejudice to the said generality, the provisions relating to preferences and to penalties in respect of the nonpayment of rates by a prescribed date shall, with any necessary modifications, apply to the consolidated rate leviable by the town council of the burgh under this section.