It's the start of the new financial year and increases to a range of ACT government administered fees and charges have now begun.
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It's not all bad news though: jury members in territory trials are getting a modest pay rise. Jurors who attend court for four hours or less will receive $51.90, up $1. Attendance at court for the first four days of a trial will earn jurors $104.50, up $2 from last financial year.
Here are some of the increases in fees and charges:
- A 6 per cent increase to territory wide parking fees has come into force from July 1. All day paid parking tickets will add $1 a day to long-stay parks in the city centre, up to $15 a day. The change will slug full-time workers about $230 extra a year.
- The fee for issue or renewal of learners' permits, full licences, provisional licences and probationary licences is up by 3 per cent, making a five year full licence issue or renewal cost $171.60, up from $167.10.
- Car registration costs have gone up by 5 per cent, raising about $15.5 million for the government. The administration fee paid by drivers for car registration will drop from $15 per transaction to $10 per transaction, creating an offset to drivers who choose to pay quarterly or half yearly. Annual registration will continue to attract a 2 per cent discount.
- Households will have a $66 increase for the fire and emergency services levy this year, followed by $40 year-on-year increases to 2018.
- Road rescue fees, paid as part of car registration, will increase to $25, up by $8.40. The increase will raise almost $10 million over four years.
- The ambulance levy, paid as part of private health insurance, will increase by $6 for individuals and $12 for families.
- Commercial fishing licence fees will increase to $254.70, up from $244.90.
- The cost of freedom of information requests and processing fees will also rise. Fees for retrieving a document will rise to $25 per hour, the fee charged by officials for deciding if a document can be released will rise to $33.00 per hour, inspecting documents will cost $20.90 per hour and scanning or photocopying documents will cost $0.33 per page.
- An adult firearms licence will cost shooters $132 from today, up from $127 last financial year. A minor's firearms licence will cost $43, up $1.
One set of fees not increasing is the government's planned expansion of paid parking in the city.
From September 1, drivers will pay for parking in the evenings and on weekends at London Circuit, the Civic Pool, next to Commonwealth Avenue and at the Canberra Institute of Technology.
Parking will be charged until 10.30pm on weekdays and from 9am until 10.30pm on weekends. Drivers will pay a maximum of $5 for parking between 5.30pm and 10.30pm on weekdays and any time on weekends. Parking hours for all-day tickets purchased on weekdays will be extended to until 10.30pm.
