The annual charge for a holder of an Approved Arrangement under the biosecurity cost recovery model is currently $2,900.
As members may recall during 2017, Freight & Trade Alliance (FTA) led the advocacy for reform with the then Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (now Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment) resulting in the outcome, in circumstances whereby a customs brokerage only holds an Approved Arrangement class 19, allowing the Director of Biosecurity to exercise discretion to apply a remission of $2,400.
FTA has received advice that the Director of Biosecurity again has made this decision to retain this remission based on the differences in costs incurred by the department in regulating the various classes. It is important to note that this is a discretionary decision of the Director of Biosecurity rather than a change to the cost recovery settings for Approved Arrangements.
This will explain why members may have received invoices from the department that reflects a biosecurity cost recovery charge of $2,900 and then a 'Broker – Remission' of $2,400.
The bottom line (for the current period) is that the cost to the holder of Approved Arrangement class 19 remains unchanged at $500.
FTA will continue advocacy:
- to return to a historical cost recovery model whereby fees are collected on a Full Import Declaration (FID) basis i.e. eliminating all Approved Arrangement class 19 flat fees and recover costs with a marginal increase against ALL sea import declarations, not only against Automatic Entry Processing for Commodities (AEPCOMM) entries; and
- using this cost recovery mechanism, introduce a differential for non-Class 19 Approved Arrangement fees reflecting a further reduction of costs for SME establishments
This is an agenda that FTA will pursue during the course of the year with cost recovery undoubtedly to have prominence post the upcoming Federal election – further background detail is available HERE
Sal Milici - Head of Border & Biosecurity - FTA / APSA
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