Commentary on provisions of Act Section 2 - Regional rates
This section fixes the levels of the regional domestic and regional non domestic rates that are to be used in the assessment of rates and the billing of ratepayers in Northern Ireland for the year ending 31 March 2018. Subsection (3) sets the domestic regional rates, expressed in terms of ‘pence per pound of rateable value’, at 0.4177 pence and subsection (2) sets the non-domestic regional rate at 32.92 pence.
	Subsection (4) clarifies that the Department of Finance in Northern Ireland may subsequently vary the rates set by this Act, using the established procedure of an Order under the Rates (Northern Ireland) Order 1977. Subsection (5) makes clear that any such order may only be made after the formation of an Executive after 1 April 2017 and that it may set the rates for the whole of the year in which the Order is made. This clarifies that the same power that the Department of Finance would ordinarily have to vary a regional rate, if it had been set by means of a Rates Order, applies following the passage of this Act.