A. 1. There is imposed a tax upon every person other than an electric or gas corporation using electrical energy in the city. The tax imposed by this section shall be at the rate of eight percent of the charges made for such energy by an electrical corporation providing service in the city and shall be billed to and paid by the person using the energy.
2. The tax applicable to electrical energy provided by a non-utility supplier shall be determined by applying the tax rate to the equivalent charge the service user would have incurred if the energy used had been provided by the electrical corporation or franchised by the city. Rate schedules for this purpose shall be available from the city. Non-utility suppliers shall install, maintain and use an appropriate utility-type metering system which will enable compliance with this section. “Charges,” as used in this section, shall include charges made for: (a) metered energy; and (b) minimum charges for service, including customer charges, service charges, demand charges, standby charges and all other annual and monthly charges, fuel or other cost adjustments, authorized by the California Public Utilities Commission or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
B. As used in this section, the term “using electrical energy” shall not be construed to mean the storage of such energy by a person in a battery owned or possessed by him or her for use in an automobile or other machinery device apart from the premises upon which the energy was received, provided, however, that the term shall include the receiving of such energy for the purpose of using it in the charge of batteries; nor shall the term include electricity used and consumed by an electric utility supplier in the conduct of its business; nor shall the term include the mere receiving of such energy by an electric corporation or governmental agency at a point within the city for resale; nor shall the term include the use of energy in the production or the distribution of water by a water utility or a governmental agency.
C. The tax imposed in this section shall be collected from the service user by the service supplier or non-utility supplier. The tax imposed in this section on use supplied by self-generation or from a non-utility supplier shall be collected and remitted to the tax administrator in the manner set forth in Section 3.26.070. The amount of tax collected by a service supplier or a non-utility supplier in one month shall be remitted by U.S. mail to the tax administrator, postmarked on or before the last day of the following month; or at the option of the person required to collect and remit the tax, an estimated amount of the tax measured by the tax billed in the previous month, shall be remitted by U.S. mail, to the tax administrator, postmarked on or before the last day of each month. (Ord. 98-104, Exh. A § 2(part), 1998).