House of Representatives

Explanatory Memorandum

(Circulated by authority of the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, the Honourable Peter Dutton MP)

Outline

The purpose of Customs Amendment (Fees and Charges) Bill 2015 (the Amendment Bill) is to amend the Customs Act 1901 (the Customs Act) to implement certain recommendations from the Joint Review Of Border Fees, Charges And Taxes (the Joint Review). In particular, the Amendment Bill:

(a)

amends the amount of warehoused goods declaration fee payable under section 71BA of the Customs Act;

(b)

sets out the circumstances in which new warehouse licence application charge and warehouse licence variation charge are payable, and the warehouse licence grant and renewal charges, are payable. These charges will be imposed under the Customs Depot Licensing Charges Amendment Bill 2015; and

(c)

sets out the circumstances in which the new customs broker licence application charge, and the customs broker licence grant and renewal charges, are payable. These charges will also be imposed under the Customs Depot Licensing Charges Amendment Bill 2015;

(d)

introduces a new head of power to enable the charging of fees for service in respect of matters under the Customs Act.

The Joint Review was commissioned prior to the 2015-16 Budget to identify and recommend to Government how charging arrangements could be improved to better support future border operations and industry outcomes. The scope of the Joint Review included changes to current fees, charges and taxes, as well as new approaches to charges levied by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP).

For the licensing programme, the Joint Review identified that;

(a)

current customs broker charges only recover approximately 30% of the total expenditure base;

(b)

the charging framework does not support DIBP business outcomes as best as it could;

(c)

the opportunity exists to better align charges with the Australian Government Cost Recover Guidelines (AGCRG's); and

(d)

licensing business processes are very manual and require updating to make best use of electronic media.

To improve on the licensing charging arrangements, it was recommended that broker charges be increased to recover two thirds of the expenditure base, and that new broker and warehouse application charges and a new warehouse variation application charge be introduced to recover the costs associated with processing the relevant applications.

The Amendment Bill supports the implementation of these recommendations.

Financial impact statement

The measures in the Amendment Bill, together with the measures in the Customs Depot Licensing Charges Amendment Bill 2015, will generate an estimated $1.1 million across the forward estimates from 2015-16. A delay in introducing this legislation will have a financial impact on the Budget balance of an estimated $27,000 per month as this revenue has already been factored into the forward estimates.

Regulation Impact Statement

The changes proposed to this legislation support the implementation of the outcomes of the Joint Review. The Office of Best Practice Regulation has been consulted in relation to the proposed amendments and a Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) has been assessed to be consistent with best practice. The RIS will be published when all recommendations have been considered and finalised.