INSPECTION FEE

(a) For each state fiscal year, a person who manufactures or distributes commercial feed or a component of commercial feed in this state, including a person who mixes, mills, or processes customer-formula feed, shall pay to the service an inspection fee prescribed by this section. (b) Except as otherwise provided by this section, the inspection fee is 15 cents per ton of commercial feed. With the approval of the board, the director may reduce or increase the inspection in increments of 1 cent up to a maximum of 2 cents per fiscal year, except that the board and director shall reduce the inspection fee by 1 cent increments when the balance of the Texas feed control fund exceeds one-half the projected operating expenses of the service for the next fiscal year. (c) A person distributing in this state a commercial feed product packaged in individual containers of five pounds or less shall pay, for each distinct commercial feed product so distributed, a flat rate inspection fee of $50 for each fiscal year or part of a fiscal year in which the distribution is made. (d) A licensee paying an inspection fee under Subsection (b) of this section shall pay in advance a minimum annual inspection fee of $100 per fiscal year. All advance inspection fees collected under this section shall be credited towards the first tonnage inspection fee owed by the licensee accruing in that fiscal year. (e) A person is not required to pay an inspection fee on a portion of a customer-formula feed that is produced by the purchaser or acquired by the purchaser from a source other than the person who mixes, mills, or processes the mixture. (f) The service by rule may provide that a person is not required to pay an inspection fee on commercial feed that the person manufactures or distributes solely for investigational, experimental, or laboratory use by qualified persons, if the investigation or experiment is conducted in the public interest.