October 23rd 2024.
According to the state government, an alarming amount of nearly $145 million in fees has been wrongly charged to New South Wales (NSW) residents since 2016. The current Minns government has accused the previous Liberal-National government of implementing unfair merchant fees through Service NSW and Revenue NSW from February 2016 to December 2022. This whopping amount was accumulated from more than 92 million transactions, including charges such as a 71c fee for a 3-year license renewal, a $1.92 surcharge on the registration of a basic car like a Toyota Corolla, and a 29c surcharge on a marriage certificate.
According to the state government, the Crown Solicitor's Office had informed the previous government on three separate occasions that these fees were unlawful. However, they chose to ignore these warnings and continued charging these fees to customers. These merchant fees are essentially surcharges used to cover the costs incurred by payment providers for the use of their systems, similar to a credit card surcharge. While card surcharges themselves are not illegal, in this case, the alleged payments were unlawful as government agencies are required to use a specific legal authority to charge merchant fees on card transactions.
Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government Jihad Dib stated that the current government's top priority is to put an end to these charges as soon as possible. He expressed deep concern over the fact that this practice had been ongoing despite legal concerns being raised. Dib also highlighted the fact that even though the individual fees may seem small, they were charged unlawfully, and the community deserves an explanation for how this was allowed to continue for so long under the previous government.
Minister for Finance Courtney Houssos revealed that she was made aware of this issue in September and that immediate efforts are being taken to stop these fees from being charged. She also stated that they will thoroughly investigate the matter and determine why millions of people were unlawfully charged these merchant fees. Houssos emphasized that families, households, and businesses have the right to expect lawful conduct from their government, and all agencies have been instructed to review their processes in light of these allegations.
The concerns surrounding these fees were brought to light by the NSW Auditor-General, who then informed the government. As a result, these allegations have now been presented to the state's corruption watchdog. The government is committed to getting to the bottom of this issue and ensuring that such unlawful practices are not repeated in the future.
[This article has been trending online recently and has been generated with AI. Your feed is customized.]
[Generative AI is experimental.]
