Prompt Payment of Accounts Act, 1997

Prompt payment of accounts.

4.—(1) A purchaser who obtains goods or services from a supplier shall pay for them by the prescribed payment date.

(2) A purchaser who does not pay for goods or services by the prescribed payment date shall, subject to sections 5 , 7 and 14 , pay an interest penalty to the supplier in accordance with this section on the amount from time to time outstanding under the contract for the supply of the goods or services.

(3) An interest penalty under this Act shall be paid to the supplier for the period beginning on the day after the prescribed payment date and ending on the date on which the payment of the amount due is made.

(4) For the purposes of subsection (3), payment shall be taken to have been made when the appropriate amount of cash is received by the supplier, the appropriate amount is credited by, on behalf of, or at the direction of, the purchaser to an account nominated by the supplier, or the supplier is put in a position by the purchaser to be able, by the supplier's own actions, to credit the appropriate amount (for example, by the depositing of a cheque which is subsequently honoured) to such an account.

(5) An interest penalty in accordance with this section is not capable of being waived by the supplier, and shall be included with the amount payable for the goods or services without demand for its payment being made by the supplier.