Non-domestic rates relief
150.Paragraph 7 amends section 153 of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. That section allows the Scottish Ministers, for any financial year, by regulations to prescribe rules to determine the amount payable as non-domestic rate in respect of any lands and heritages.
151.Paragraph 7 inserts a new subsection (4A) into section 153. New subsection (4A) allows the Scottish Ministers, during the financial year 2020-21, to make regulations prescribing rules that reduce or remit the amount payable as non-domestic rate. Those rules may reduce or remit the amount either for the whole of that year (including the period prior to the regulations being made), or for such period within that year as is specified in the regulations (including a period beginning prior to the regulations being made).
152.Paragraph 8 amends regulations made under section 153. It provides that no non-domestic rates are payable in respect of premises used wholly or mainly for production of newspapers and related news platforms. This relief applies on a daily basis, from the day after Royal Assent to the Act. The regulations that are amended provide for such relief to continue until and including 31 March 2021.