Page 1095 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 May 2020
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(3) a proportion of residential ratepayers pay general rates annually as opposed to quarterly or via direct debit arrangements; and
(4) any commercial or residential ratepayer in the Territory can currently access an interest-free deferral of their rates bill if they have experienced a reduction in their income due to COVID-19 by contacting the ACT Revenue Office.”.
The ACT government announced two economic survival packages, on 20 March and 2 April, with more to come. The first two tranches of our economic survival support totalled more than $350 million, as part of a multistage response to this very significant public health and economic shock.
The major initiatives included, as Mr Coe has indicated in this motion, a rebate on residential general rates—in effect, a reduction in those rates for the coming fiscal year; a rebate on commercial rates fixed charges; a rebate to small businesses on their electricity bills; the waiving of payroll tax for six months to businesses closed due to COVID-19 health restrictions; and a significant expansion of hardship deferrals for ratepayers, both household and commercial, and businesses experiencing difficulty.
We fast-tracked infrastructure and maintenance projects. We provided tax relief for landlords to reduce rents under a cost-sharing arrangement and provided additional support for the community sector. We have frozen a range of government taxes and charges, the fire and emergency services levy amongst those. Vehicle registration, parking and public transport fees have been frozen.
We established the jobs for Canberra fund to allow the ACT public service to employ additional workers. Importantly, to provide cashflow relief and assistance we delayed the issuing of rates notices altogether. So with no bill before households, that extra month of delay plus the extended payment terms available to households certainly provide immediate relief. Not sending someone a bill is, indeed, relief, and deferring payment for a month was the immediate assistance provided in relation to household general rates.
The government considered the timing of the $150 rates rebate and determined that the first quarter of fiscal year 2021 was the most appropriate for a number of reasons. Firstly, it ensured that it best aligned with support payments being provided by the commonwealth, as the initial support payments to households were provided in March and April and the JobKeeper payments started in May. There were and remain a range of administrative complexities associated with changing nearly 170,000 notices that make it both impractical and inequitable to provide the rebate in quarter 4 of the 2019-20 fiscal year.
The government was able to use other levers to provide more immediate financial support to more vulnerable members of the community, particularly increasing the utilities concession by $200 for bills in this final quarter of fiscal 2019-20. This goes to more than 30,000 households in the ACT. So 30,000 households who previously received energy concessions of around $700 to $750 a year will now get an additional $200.
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