Louisiana Administrative Code › Title 7 - AGRICULTURE AND ANIMALS › Part XV - Plant Protection and Quarantine › Chapter 3 - Boll Weevil › Section XV-321 - Maintenance Inspection Fees, Payment and Penalties

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 6, June 20, 2024
A. The annual maintenance inspection fee on
				cotton producers in the Louisiana eradication zone shall be $4 per acre for
				each acre of cotton planted in the state. Each cotton producer shall pay his
				annual maintenance inspection fee directly to the department no later than July
				15 or final certification with the FSA for that growing season, whichever is
				later. The signed and completed cotton acreage reporting and payment form with
				FSA Form 578 attached shall be submitted with the annual payment of the
				maintenance inspection fee.
B. A
				cotton producer may request a waiver of all or part of the maintenance
				inspection fee for any crop year in which he plants cotton in accordance with
				the following procedure. The decision to grant a waiver of all or part of any
				maintenance inspection fee for a crop year is within the discretion of the
				commission.
1. A cotton producer who requests
				a waiver of the maintenance inspection fee for a crop year must submit a
				written request for a waiver to the commission.
2. The commission must receive the written
				request, through mail, fax or other form of actual delivery, on or before 4:30
				p.m. central time on August 1 of the crop year for which the waiver is
				requested. A written request for a waiver will be deemed to be timely when the
				papers aremailed on or before the due date. Timeliness of the mailing shall be
				shown only by an official United States postmark or by official receipt or
				certificate from the United States Postal Service made at the time of mailing
				which indicates the date thereof. A fax will be deemed to be timely only upon
				proof of actual receipt of the transmission.
3. The written request for a waiver must show
				the name of the cotton producer, the field number, the number of acres for
				which a waiver is requested, the date the acres were failed, the reasons the
				waiver is being requested and a certification that all living cotton plants and
				cotton stalks were destroyed prior to July 15 of the crop year and that the
				acreage will remain void of all living cotton plants through December 31 of the
				same crop year.
4. Each cotton
				producer who has filed a timely request for a waiver with the commission shall
				be notified of the date, time and place that the commission is scheduled to
				consider the request for a waiver at least 10 days prior to the commission
				meeting. The commission shall not consider an untimely written
				request.
5. A cotton producer,
				whose timely request for a waiver is denied by the commission, shall be
				entitled to pay his maintenance inspection fee without imposition of a per acre
				penalty fee if he pays the maintenance inspection fee within 30 days after
				receiving written notification of the commission's decision.
6. The commission has the authority to
				inspect any cotton field in which a cotton producer has claimed to have
				destroyed the cotton crop. Failure of the cotton producer to allow inspection
				shall be a violation of this Chapter.