Page 763 - Week 03 - Thursday, 2 April 2020
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Questions without notice
Business—commercial rates
MR COE: My question is to the Chief Minister and Treasurer. Chief Minister, noting the announcement that you made about an hour ago regarding supporting local businesses and the economy in this COVID-19 era, will you please advise what sectors of our economy will receive automatic commercial rates waivers for quarter 4 of 2019-20, and possibly quarter 1 of 2020-21?
MR BARR: The government has undertaken extensive steps to develop a scheme that provides relief for business tenants and owner-occupied commercial properties. There are three broad categories of businesses emerging through COVID-19. The first category is those who are partially affected or not affected at all. For those who are significantly affected, we have, generally speaking, applied the commonwealth threshold around that, which is at least a 30 per cent reduction in business income, although a couple of our measures have been a little bit more generous than the commonwealth in that regard. Category 3 is those who have shut down operations due to COVID-19 health restrictions.
There are those for whom, as part of stimulus package 1, the government provided a fixed charge waiver of $2,622. That is the equivalent of the annual fixed charge amount to commercial property owners with average unimproved values lower than $2 million, which I am advised is about 90 per cent of the commercial properties in the ACT. The cost of that is $16.2 million in quarter 4. Those who are in the second category will be able to apply for a waiver, or a rebate if they have already paid annually, of commercial rates that are tied to rental relief provided to tenants. The proportional cost-sharing arrangement—
Mr Coe: A point of order.
MADAM SPEAKER: A point of order, Mr Coe?
Mr Coe: It is on relevance. I am after what sectors will receive automatic commercial rates waivers.
MADAM SPEAKER: I think there is a level of detail in Mr Barr’s answer.
MR BARR: Thank you. In the first instance, as I said, businesses in categories 2 and 3 will be receiving additional assistance. The rebate that we announced as part of category 1 applies to all sectors with AUVs below the $2 million figure. (Time expired.)
MR COE: Treasurer, will any sectors of the economy receive automatic rates waivers or will all businesses, if they are in category 3 or category 2, have to apply for a commercial rates waiver?
MR BARR: The national agreement is that rates waivers—in the context of the ACT, rates and land tax are combined—must be tied to that being passed on to tenants.
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