Regulation Review - IPART - NSW Government

4 Estimating the impacts of recommended reforms
Fees and charges
Fees and charges include licence fees, permit fees, registration fees, and other fees
relating to the administration of regulation. Ideally, regulatory administration
fees and charges should be set to allow regulators to recover the efficient costs
they incur in administering and enforcing regulations.
To estimate fee and charge cost savings of a recommended reform, we will seek
to:
identify the fees or charges reduced or eliminated if the reform were to be
implemented – eg, a licence fee may be reduced to reflect a more targeted and
efficient enforcement regime
place a dollar value on the amended fee or charge – eg, the annual licence fee
may be reduced from $200 to $20, which equates to a reduction of $180 per
licence
multiply the value of the reduced fee or charge by the relevant population
of businesses or individuals affected – eg, if 1,000 businesses are subject to
the annual licence fee, the annual value of the reduction is $180,000 (1,000 x
$180).
According to BRO, reductions in fees and charges should be the easiest cost
savings to calculate. This is because they are known to regulators, who are also
likely to have access to data on the number of individuals, businesses and notfor-profit
organisations that would be liable for the fee or charge. 88
Delay costs
Delay costs result from delays in regulatory processes – eg, delays in receiving
approval to undertake a certain activity. Delay costs generally include the cost of
holding assets (land, capital, labour).
BRO observes that delay costs may be reduced where:
regulators are required to process applications within a set period
the quantity of material required for an application is reduced, allowing faster
processing
there is a significant change to an approval process – eg, the process for
handling objections. 89
88 Ibid, p 15.
89 Ibid, p 16.
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