Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Customs Amendment (Fees and Charges) Bill 2015 is one bill in a package that deals with legislative change to implement measures announced as part of the 2015-16 budget, following the completion of the joint review of border fees, charges and taxes (fees review). This bill amends the Customs Act 1901 to restructure current customs broker, depot and warehouse charges and complements the Customs Depot Licensing Charges Amendment Bill 2015. The bill will also increase the warehoused goods declaration processing fee.

The other bill in the package is the Import Processing Charges Amendment Bill 2015. This restructure of the licensing regime includes consolidating all customs licensing charges under a single act—the Customs Licensing Charges Act 1997—introducing new licensing charges, and adjusting the price of licensing charges to ensure full cost recovery for depot and warehouse licensing activities, and partial cost recovery of customs broker licensing activities.

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection processes and assesses applications, issues licences, and manages the renewal and compliance framework for warehouse and depot licence holders, and for customs brokers. Cost recovery charges are imposed on identifiable persons or businesses holding or applying for licences. These charges were forecast to recover $4.0 million in the 2014-15 financial year. Additionally, $1.0 million was forecast to be recovered for warehouses administered under delegation by the ATO.

Under current legislation, depot licence charges are in their own act, while warehouse and customs broker licence charges, which recover costs for similar border licensing activities, are contained in the Customs Act 1901 and Customs Regulation 2015.

Charging mechanisms also currently differ across the different licence types. While depot licence applicants must pay a licence application charge, and depot licence holders must pay a depot licence variation charge, no such charges exist for warehouse or customs broker licences. Prospective warehouse and customs broker licence holders bear no cost if their application is unsuccessful, and warehouse licence holders do not bear the cost of processing licence variations. During 2013-14, 45 per cent of broker licence applications were unsuccessful, which led to a significant unrecoverable expense for the department.

The current licensing charging arrangements were established to recover the full costs of customs licensing activities, in line with the Australian Government Cost Recovery Guidelines. During the Fees Review, it was identified that there is significant under-recovery of costs within the customs broker licensing program. The revenue from current broker licensing charges represents approximately 30 per cent of total costs, with current prices set more than 10 years ago. During consultation, industry groups voiced concerns that they believe the program to be inefficient, and that significant business process improvement and modernisation would be necessary to provide a more efficient service. In addition to this, they noted that a shift to full cost recovery would present significant affordability challenges to new and existing broker licence holders.

The amendments in this bill and the customs depot licensing charges bill 2015 will consolidate all licensing charges into a single act to simplify the legislation. It will introduce new licensing charges to better align the charges with the cost recovery guidelines. The new charges include a warehouse licencing application charge, a warehouse licencing variation charge and customs broker application charges. This will encourage applicants to be better prepared prior to applying for a licence and will reduce the cost burden of the licensing program, which is currently borne by successful applicants only.

The bill will also introduce a small increase in the fees applicable to an import declaration for warehoused goods. This amendment will complement amendments to import processing charges in the Import Processing Charges Amendment Bill 2015, charges that contribute to the recovery of the costs of managing the import-related trade and cargo functions of the department. I commend this bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.