Section 472.5.

The New Motor Vehicle Board in the Department of Motor Vehicles shall, in accordance with the procedures prescribed in this section, administer the collection of fees for the purposes of fully funding the administration of this chapter.

(a) Fees collected pursuant to this section shall be deposited in the Certification Account in the Consumer Affairs Fund and shall be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, exclusively to pay the expenses incurred by the department in administering this chapter and to pay the New Motor Vehicle Board as provided in Section 3016 of the Vehicle Code. If, at the conclusion of any fiscal year, the amount of fees collected exceeds the amount of expenditures for that purpose during that fiscal year, the surplus in the Certification Account shall be carried over into the succeeding fiscal year.

(b) Beginning July 1, 1988, and on or before May 1 of each calendar year thereafter, every manufacturer shall file with the New Motor Vehicle Board a statement of the number of motor vehicles sold, leased, or otherwise distributed by or for the manufacturer in this state during the preceding calendar year, and shall, upon written notice delivered to the manufacturer by certified mail, return receipt requested, pay to the New Motor Vehicle Board a fee, not to exceed one dollar ($1) for each motor vehicle sold, leased, or distributed by or for the manufacturer in this state during the preceding calendar year. The total fee paid by each manufacturer shall be rounded to the nearest dollar in the manner described in Section 9559 of the Vehicle Code. Not more than one dollar ($1) shall be charged, collected, or received from any one or more manufacturers pursuant to this subdivision with respect to the same motor vehicle.

(c) (1) The fee required by subdivision (b) is due and payable not later than 30 days after the manufacturer has received notice of the amount due and is delinquent after that time. A penalty of 10 percent of the amount delinquent shall be added to that amount, if the delinquency continues for more than 30 days.

(2) If a manufacturer fails to file the statement required by subdivision (b) by the date specified, the New Motor Vehicle Board shall assess the amount due from the manufacturer by using as the number of motor vehicles sold, leased, or otherwise distributed by or for the manufacturer in this state during the preceding calendar year the total number of new registrations of all motor vehicles sold, leased, or otherwise distributed by or for the manufacturer during the preceding calendar year.

(d) On or before February 1 of each year, the department shall notify the New Motor Vehicle Board of the dollar amount necessary to fully fund the program established by this chapter during the following fiscal year. The New Motor Vehicle Board shall use this information in calculating the amounts of the fees to be collected from manufacturers pursuant to this section.

(e) For purposes of this section, "motor vehicle" means a new passenger or commercial motor vehicle of a kind that is required to be registered under the Vehicle Code, but the term does not include a motorcycle, a motor home, or any vehicle whose gross weight exceeds 10,000 pounds.

(f) The New Motor Vehicle Board may adopt regulations to implement this section. The regulations shall include, at a minimum, a formula for calculating the fee, established pursuant to subdivision (b), for each motor vehicle and the total amount of fees to be collected from each manufacturer.

(g) Any revenues already received by the Arbitration Certification Program and deposited in the Vehicle Inspection and Repair Fund for the 1991–92 fiscal year that have not yet been spent shall be deposited into the Certification Account in the Consumer Affairs Fund.

(Amended by Stats. 1998, Ch. 970, Sec. 3. Effective January 1, 1999.)