A.  Any buyer who fails to file a report or to pay any assessment within the required time by the commissioner shall forfeit to the commissioner the amount of the assessment plus a penalty of five percent of the assessment determined to be due, plus one percent of such amount for each month of delay or fraction thereof after the first month after such report was required to be filed or such assessment became due.  The penalty shall be paid to the commissioner and shall be disposed of by him in the same manner as funds derived from the payment of the assessment imposed herein.

B.  The commissioner shall collect the penalties levied herein, together with the delinquent assessments, by any of the following methods:

(1)  By voluntary payment by the person liable;

(2)  By legal proceedings instituted in a court of competent jurisdiction;

(3)  By injunctive relief to enjoin any buyer owing such assessment and/or penalties from operating his business or engaging in business as a buyer of rice until the delinquent assessment and/or penalties are paid.

C.  Any person required to pay the assessments provided for in this Chapter who refuses to allow full inspection of the premises, or any books, records, or other documents relating to the liability of such person for the assessment herein imposed, or who shall hinder or in any way delay or prevent such inspection, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars or by imprisonment not to exceed six months, or both.

D.  Whoever violates any provisions of this Chapter or any rule or regulation of the board pursuant to the provisions of this Chapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not to exceed one hundred dollars or by imprisonment not to exceed thirty days, or both.

Added by Acts 1972, No. 104, §1; Acts 2009, No. 24, §8H, eff. June 12, 2009; Acts 2010, No. 861, §3.