The axing of the carbon tax may lower Bega Valley Shire Council rates but its impact is likely to be minimal.
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The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is monitoring local councils to ensure rates and charges that were increased because of the carbon tax are brought back down.
"Waste and general electricity costs do affect council rates , what went up should come down," ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.
While the BVSC did not incur a direct carbon tax liability, it has had to accommodate indirect carbon tax impacts.
In answer to a question from the News Weekly asking what impact the carbon tax had on council operations Council's chief financial officer Lucas Scarpin said: "Council did not incur a direct carbon tax liability, that being we didn’t have to pay any carbon tax to the government. However, supplies purchased by council such as electricity were impacted by the carbon tax resulting in an indirect carbon tax impact."
When asked what impact that will have on rate bills, Mr Scarpin said: "Council increases its rates by Local Government Cost Index issued under IPART each year. If the cost of supplies to councils across NSW were to be reduced then we would expect that those reductions would be factored into the LGCI calculations going forward."
