Florida Public Service Regulatory Trust Fund; moneys to be deposited therein.

(1) There is hereby created in the State Treasury a special fund to be designated as the “Florida Public Service Regulatory Trust Fund” which shall be used in the operation of the commission in the performance of the various functions and duties required of it by law.

(2) All fees, licenses, and other charges collected by the commission shall be deposited in the State Treasury to the credit of the Florida Public Service Regulatory Trust Fund to be used in the operation of the commission as authorized by the Legislature; however, penalties and interest assessed and collected by the commission shall not be deposited in the trust fund but shall be deposited in the General Revenue Fund. The Florida Public Service Regulatory Trust Fund shall be subject to the service charge imposed pursuant to chapter 215.

(3) Each regulated company under the jurisdiction of the commission, which company was in operation for the preceding 6-month period, shall pay to the commission within 30 days following the end of each 6-month period a fee based upon the gross operating revenues for such period. The fee shall, to the extent practicable, be related to the cost of regulating such type of regulated company. Differences, if any, between the amount paid in any 6-month period and the amount actually determined by the commission to be due shall, upon notification by the commission, be immediately paid or refunded. Each regulated company which is subject to the jurisdiction of the commission, but which did not operate under the commission’s jurisdiction during the entire preceding 6-month period, shall, within 30 days after the close of the first 6-month period during which it commenced operations under, or became subject to, the jurisdiction of the commission, pay to the commission the prescribed fee based upon its gross operating revenues derived from intrastate business during those months or parts of months in which the regulated company did operate during such 6-month period. In no event shall payments under this section be less than $25 annually.

(4) The commission shall provide each regulated company with written notice of the date that payment of the fee is due at least 45 days prior to such date. If any regulated company fails to pay the required fee by such date, the commission shall estimate the amount of fee due from such information as it may be able to obtain from any source and shall add 5 percent of such amount to the fee as a penalty if the failure is for not more than 30 days, with an additional 5 percent for each additional 30 days or fraction thereof during the time in which the failure continues, not to exceed a total penalty of 25 percent. The commission shall collect the fee and penalty, plus interest and all costs of collection, from the regulated company. However, no penalty shall be added to the fee if a return is made and the fee is paid before the date fixed in the notice given by the commission.

(5) The commission, for good cause shown by written request, may extend for a period not to exceed 30 days the time for paying any fee or for filing any report related thereto. If an extension is granted, there shall be collected a charge of 0.75 percent of the fee to be remitted for an extension of 15 days or less, or a charge of 1.5 percent of the fee for an extension of more than 15 days. No other penalty or interest shall be collected if such fee is remitted within the extension time granted. In lieu of paying the interest charge imposed by this subsection, a regulated company may remit an estimated amount of fee by the 30th day following a 6-month period. Any regulated company which remits an estimated fee payment by such date shall be granted a 30-day extension period in which to file and remit the actual fee due without the interest charge provided hereunder being imposed, unless the estimated fee payment remitted is less than 90 percent of the actual fee due for such period.

(6) All moneys in the Florida Public Service Regulatory Trust Fund shall be for the use of the commission in the performance of its functions and duties as provided by law, subject to the fiscal and budgetary provisions of general law.

(7) Notwithstanding the provisions of s. 350.111, as used in this section only, the term “regulated company” includes any rural electric cooperative or municipal electric utility.