Application fees for a refrigeration handling licence and trading authorisations increased for the first time in eight years on January 1, 2013.
Announcing details of the fee increase, the Australian Refrigeration Council (ARC) said licensing fees must cover the cost of administering the scheme.
The ARC, which was established by the federal government in 2005, began the consultation process for the fee increase in 2009 but the changes were not introduced until last month.
The Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management regulations (1995), introduced to cover licensing for refrigeration and air conditioning systems, was amended in November 2012 to accommodate the increase.
In a statement, the ARC said the fee increase was necessary “to meet the rising costs of administering the licensing scheme and [was] consistent with the federal government’s principles for cost recovery”, which were adopted back in 2002.
The increase covers the cost of administering the scheme since its inception and establishes a basis for the indexation of fees in future. For example, the indexation of fees will apply annually from January 1, 2014.
It will be based on the wage price index published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The new fee list applies through to the end of December 2013.
According to the ARC website, the fee for a two-year refrigerant handling licence has risen from $100 to $130. A 12-month transitional refrigerant handling licence has increased from $50 to $65 while a trainee refrigerant handling licence has gone from $20 to $26.
A refrigerant trading authorisation covering a two-year period has risen from $320 to $420 while a one-year licence has gone from $160 to $210.
A trading authorisation is a business-level permit while a handling licence is for a technician.
Restricted refrigerant trading authorisation for a period of two years has gone from $100 to $130.
According to the ARC annual report, a total of 72,798 licences and authorisations were issued in the 2011/12 financial year.
