House of Representatives may prescribe royalty

(1) Notwithstanding anything in this or any other Act, the House of Representatives may by resolution prescribe and require payment of royalty, at the rates specified in the resolution, in respect of trees to be felled on private lands, and may by resolution increase, reduce, abolish or otherwise alter the royalty prescribed, Provided that no royalty shall be payable where the parcel of land from which the trees are to be felled does not exceed 100 acres. (2) Whenever any resolution requiring payment of royalty, or increasing, reducing or abolishing existing royalties has been passed by the House of Representatives such royalties shall, unless it be otherwise expressed in the resolution and subject to sub-section (4) of this section, from and after the passing thereof, be payable to and recoverable by the Government. (3) A Bill to validate any such resolution shall be introduced into the National Assembly as soon as possible, and not later than at the meeting of the National Assembly which takes place next, after the passing of the resolution. (4) In case no Bill is introduced into the National Assembly as provided by sub-section (3) of this section or on withdrawal or rejection by the National Assembly of the Bill introduced, or in case the Bill otherwise fails to become law, every such resolution shall cease to have effect. (5) In the event of the resolution ceasing to have effect– (a) a refund of any new royalty or of the increase of the existing royalties under the resolution shall be made to the person who has paid it; and 12 (b) where the resolution has effected a reduction or abolition of the royalty, the amount by which the royalty was reduced or the royalty was payable before the abolition shall, as the case may be, become payable to and recoverable by the Government. Schedule I.