Changes to the Department of Agriculture Cost Recovery Arrangements

We have received advise that the Department of Agriculture will be implementing changes to their cost recovery arrangements effective 1 December 2015. In depth information can be for on the DAFF website here and our summary of key changes for Importers is below which is reflected by 3.1 of the Biosecurity Cost Recovery Statement.

Import Declarations
Under the Current fee structure import declarations attract a flat fee plus an additional charge per container (or part of)
• FCL: $15.00 + $30.00 per container
• LCL: $15.00 + $8.00
• BBK $15.00 (nothing further)
• Air: $16.00 (nothing further)
Under the new Structure there will only be a Flat fee and nothing further Per container, however the flat fee has increased to;
• FCL: $42.00
• LCL: $42.00
• BBK: $42.00
• Air: $33.00

Goods Subject to Quarantine or Referred for further processing
Currently an electronic lodgement fee of $10 is payable plus $40.00 which covered the initial assessment up to 30minutes.

Under the new structure there will no longer be an electronic lodgement fee and the assessment fee has been reduced to $30 however only covering 15 minutes.
Following is an extract from the document “The department expects most AIMS entries will only require a 15 minute assessment. There is no longer a fee if the department requires additional information to process a consignment, but if an assessment takes longer than 15 minutes, it will be charged at $30 for each additional 15 minutes.” While it is expected that consignments will only take 15mins to process it would be prudent to note that more complex entries involving permits and many lines of cargo may go beyond this allotted amount of time and extra costs could apply.

We understand there is a fee structure review also being tabled by Australian Border Force in which we will bring further details once finalised.

As always if there are any questions please do not hesitate to contact the SILA team.

Kind Regards
SILA Customer Service