Sec. 2. 32 MRSA §1866-E, sub-§§2, 4 and 5, as enacted by PL 2003, c. 499, §8, are amended to read:

2. Reports. An initiator of deposit shall report to the executive director of Maine Revenue Services within the Department of Administrative and Financial Services State Tax Assessor by the 20th day of each month concerning transactions affecting its deposit transaction fund in the preceding month. The report must be in a form prescribed by the executive director assessor and must include: the number of nonrefillable beverage containers sold and the number of nonrefillable beverage containers returned in the applicable month; the amount of deposits received in and payments made from the fund in the applicable month and the most recent 3-month period; any income earned on amounts in the fund during the applicable month; the balance in the fund at the close of the applicable month; and such other information as the executive director assessor may require to perform the duties of this section. The report required by this subsection must be treated by the assessor as a return, as the term is defined by Title 36, section 111, subsection 4.

4. Transfer of abandoned deposit amounts. By the 20th day of each month, an initiator shall turn over to the executive

director of Maine Revenue Services within the Department of Administrative and Financial Services State Tax Assessor the initiator's abandoned deposit amounts determined pursuant to subsection 3. Those amounts may be paid from the deposit transaction fund. Amounts collected by the executive director assessor pursuant to this subsection must be treated by the assessor as a tax, as that term is defined by Title 36, section 111, subsection 5, and must be deposited in the General Fund.

5. Reimbursement of initiators of deposit. If in any month the authorized payments from the deposit transaction fund by an initiator pursuant to this section exceed the funds that are or should be in the initiator's deposit transaction fund, the State Tax Assessor shall reimburse the initiator, from amounts received pursuant to subsection 4, for those refunds paid by the initiator for nonrefillable beverage containers for which the funds that are or should be in the initiator's deposit transaction fund are insufficient; except that reimbursements paid by the State assessor to an initiator may not exceed amounts paid by the initiator to the State pursuant to subsection 4 in the preceding 24 months less amounts paid by the State to the initiator pursuant to this subsection during that same 24-month period.