Levy
Gas Industry Co has three sources of funding:
Gas Industry Levy
Annual Fee
Market Fees
Gas Industry Levy
The Gas Act provides for a levy on industry participants to fund the activities of Gas Industry Co (as industry body) pursuant to that Act. Gas Industry Co as industry body incurs the costs of:
- making recommendations concerning any gas governance arrangements, including for regulations and rules under the Act;
- establishing, operating and facilitating the operation of markets for industry participants;
- providing advice to the Minister on matters concerning the gas industry;
- governance of the industry body;
- collecting the levy; and
- carrying out any other functions or duties, or exercising any powers, under the Act.
These costs are all permitted to be recovered by Gas Industry Co through an industry levy. Further information on Gas Industry Co's forecast financial information can be viewed here .
The levy is required to be reset annually. The resetting process involves Gas Industry Co consulting with stakeholders on matters related to the levy and making a recommendation to the Minister on levy regulations for the year ahead.
For the FY2010, the levy consultation began with the release of a consultation paper in January 2009. Following consideration of submissions on the consultation paper, Gas Industry Co made a recommendation to the Minister of Energy on the FY2010 levy structure in March 2009. The Minister accepted Gas Industry Co’s recommendation, and the Gas (Levy of Industry Participants) Regulations 2009 were gazetted on 2 June 2009. The following levy structure applied from 1 July 2009:
- a Retail levy of $6.40 per annum payable on each ICP; and
- a Wholesale levy of 1.67 cents per GJ of gas purchased directly from gas producers during the previous month.
Copies of the January 2009 consultation paper, the Recommendation to the Minister, and the Levy Regulations can be accessed below:
Levy Recommendation to Minister
Levy Regulations
In total, the levy seeks to recover approximately $4.022 million in FY2010 to fund Gas Industry Co. It is estimated that $1.6 million will be recovered from the Retail levy and $2.422 million from the Wholesale levy.
Gas Industry Co does not directly charge its levies to the end consumers. The net impact to consumers from the above levies will depend on each wholesaler’s and retailer's position with regard to the levy and how much of these costs they may choose to pass on to their respective consumers. For information about the levy amount on your gas account, please contact your retailer.
Annual Fee
All shareholders are required to pay an annual fee to Gas Industry Co. The Board set an annual fee for the 2008/09 financial year of $10,000 (plus GST) per shareholder.
Market Fees
Section 43S of the Act enables Gas Industry Co to collect from industry participants fees relating to the implementation of gas market rules and regulations. The 2008/09 financial year sees the first of these market fees being applied to Gas Industry Co's budget.
It is anticipated that as Gas Industry Co moves progressively away from policy development towards policy implementation, a greater proportion of its funding will be derived from these fees. As a consequence, it is expected that the proportion of funding derived from the annual levy will decline over time.