2016 Mississippi Code
Title 69 - Agriculture, Horticulture, and Animals
Chapter 10 - Rice Promotion Board
§ 69-10-7. Penalties; exemption

(1) Any purchaser who fails to file a report or to pay any assessment within the time required by the department shall forfeit to the department a penalty of five percent (5%) of the assessment determined to be due, plus one percent (1%) of such amount for each month of delay or fraction thereof after the first month after such report was required to be filed or such assessment became due. The penalty shall be paid to the department and shall be disposed of by it in the same manner as funds derived from the payment of the assessment imposed herein.

(2) The department shall collect the penalties levied herein, together with the delinquent assessment, by any or all of the following methods:

(a) By voluntary payment by the person liable.

(b) By legal proceedings instituted in a court of competent jurisdiction.

(3) Any person required to collect the assessment provided for in this chapter who fails to remit same or who refuses to allow full inspection of the premises, or such books, records or other documents relating to the liability of such person for the assessment herein imposed, or who shall hinder or in any way delay or prevent such inspection, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding One Thousand Dollars ($ 1,000.00) or by imprisonment not to exceed one (1) year, or both.

(4) The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to any person who purchases one thousand (1,000) or less bushels of rice in any calendar year, provided he is not regularly engaged in the purchase of rice.