The territory government's revenue management office has been hit with 68 objections to rates bills in the past four months, since a large rise in rates in July.
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Treasury officials told a Legislative Assembly hearing on Friday there had been 68 objections to rates notices lodged in the four months to October this year, compared with 77 such objections for the entire 2016-17 year.
The jump in objections follows all households facing an average seven per cent rate rise in July this year, while unit owners faced much higher increases as a result of a change to the way unit rates were calculated.
It is part of a wider rise in objections lodged with Treasury for all local rates and taxes this financial year, with 174 objections in the four months to October this year, compared to 271 objections in 2016-17.
Committee chairwoman Vicki Dunne asked officials about the rise in objections and how they compared to previous years.
ACT Treasury's revenue division executive director Kim Salisbury said overall there were 281 objections in 2014-15, 313 in 2015-16, 271 in 2016-17 and 174 in the financial year to the end of October.
On objections specific to rates notices, Mr Salisbury told the hearing Treasury had received 38 residential objections and 30 in the "commercial category" so far this year, compared to 49 residential and 28 commercial objections last fiscal year.
But Mr Salisbury said that all objections for the 2016-17 year were "determined" within six months, beating the directorates target of determining 85 per cent of all objections in that period.
He said objections were either based on a complaint that the application of the rating factor was wrong, or that the average unimproved capital value of the property might be wrong.
In the first case, Mr Salisbury said the government would make sure the calculations were correct when processing such objections, while objections on valuations involved a new report from the valuation office.
He said the territory valuation office would then give that report would then be independently review to see if there was a strong case to support the valuation, before a decision would be made and the taxpayer would be told of their rights to appeal the decision.
In the wake of a doubling of applications for deferral of rates payments on the grounds of hardship in the past year, Greens MLA Caroline Le Couteur also asked for specific figures on such applications for both units and freestanding homes.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr told the hearing the government would take that question on notice.
