Surcharges Section 8: Imposition of surcharges: operating inconsistently with declaration
Section 8 requires harbour authorities to impose surcharges where a service is operated inconsistently with an equivalence declaration or where a declaration is false or misleading. It requires a harbour authority to impose surcharges on each occasion that ships providing a service enter its harbour during the relevant year in three scenarios:
Where an operator notifies an authority that after an equivalence declaration was provided the service has been operated inconsistently with that declaration (subsection (1)(b)(i));
Where an authority has reasonable grounds to believe that the service has been operated inconsistently with a declaration (subsection (1)(b)(ii));
Where an authority has reasonable grounds to believe that a declaration is false or misleading in so far as it concerns the operation of a service before it was provided (subsection (4)).
	Pursuant to subsections (3) and (6) the harbour authority must cease imposing surcharges on ships operating the service if it is provided with a fresh equivalence declaration by the operator in respect of the service for the relevant year. However, this section will apply again if the service is operated inconsistently with the new equivalence declaration or if that declaration is false or misleading.