ALBURY Council will temporarily quarantine more than $220,000 in carbon funds collected during July at its waste management centre.
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The council’s finance and administration committee last night agreed not to refund the carbon component of money spent at the tip in the month following the repeal of the axing of the carbon tax on July 1.
Recent legal advice received by council showed refunds were not required under the repeal of the Clean Energy Act 2011.
Carbon funds totalling $221,000 were collected at the Albury tip during July with 98 per cent attributable to account customers and just $4000 to non-account customers.
Council staff claim delivering refunds would be “administratively complex” due to the use of multiple computer software systems and not having contact details of all customers.
The committee’s recommendation to be rubber-stamped by the council next week also stated a further report would be presented regarding the use of unexpended carbon funds.
The carbon component of the tip fees was removed on August 1.
Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt wrote to the council last month highlighting the government’s expectation that wherever possible, funds collected in anticipation of future carbon tax liabilities would be returned to customers and ratepayers.
But it recognised there may be cases where it was impractical for landfill operators to return funds.
To remove some of the uncertainty on how unexpended carbon receipts were to be used the council successfully put forward a motion to the National General Assembly of Local Government in June and has been adopted by the Australian Local Government Association.
It read: “That the National General Assembly support the proposition surplus revenue collected under the Clean Energy Act be retained by local government for related activities such as improving operating and energy efficiency of assets, waste education programs or waste diversion programs”.