Australia: Updates to biosecurity and food regulatory fees

The Department of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (DAFF) issued a notice regarding the 2024-25 prices for biosecurity and imported food regulatory activities.

This notice was published on 28 June 2024.

The notice affects stakeholders in the import and shipping industries, including customs brokers, freight forwarders, vessel masters, biosecurity industry participants, and shipping agents.

What has changed?

In 2023, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry introduced new charges and committed to an annual review of these regulatory charges, including indexation adjustments. The following changes take effect starting 1 July 2024:

Annual Review and Indexation: The department will now embed the annual review process and apply indexation to regulatory fees and charges.
Updated Schedule of Prices: The 2024-25 Biosecurity Cost Recovery Implementation Statement (CRIS) provides an updated schedule of prices and the current cost to deliver regulatory activities.
New Fees and Charges: The new fees and charges for biosecurity and imported food regulatory activities are in place from 1 July 2024.

What is driving these changes? Regulatory charging is crucial for funding Australia’s biosecurity system and ensuring its sustainability. Key reasons for these changes include:

Ensuring alignment of prices with the cost of delivering regulatory functions.
Avoiding the need for large price increases in the future.

Key changes:

Indexation Increase: All legislated regulatory charges subject to an indexation provision increased by 4.1% on 1 July 2024. This increase follows the indexation methodology prescribed in legislation and does not require legislative changes.
New Rates: The new rates for 2024-25 are detailed in the 2024-25 Biosecurity CRIS and pricing tables.

Details on 2024-25 Biosecurity CRIS: The 2024-25 Biosecurity CRIS contains:

Indexed prices for regulatory charges.
Relevant information on the department’s authority to cost recover.
Estimated costs, forecast volumes, and cost recovery revenue for biosecurity and imported food regulatory activities.
Financial tables showing past performance and forecast costs for future years.

Pricing tables: The pricing tables outline the indexed prices for regulatory charges and describe the indexation methodology applied to calculate new prices.

Billing after 1 July 2024:

Invoice Changes: Stakeholders will notice changes to invoices, including new prices, new codes, and in some cases, new descriptions.
Service Dates: Invoices may show both old and new prices for the same service, depending on when the regulatory activities were performed.
AIMS System: Entry directions issued via the Agriculture Import Management System (AIMS) will include the entry creation date and additional information related to the biosecurity activities performed.

For more information, please see the document below (available only to subscribers):