Statement to the Essential Services Commission

Published on 15 December 2020

The Pyrenees Shire Council has reported non-compliance with the 2020/21 rate cap.

The non-compliance was due to an error in Council’s rating database that meant twelve (12) properties added in 2019/20 were not attributed a value as at 1 July 2020 in the system.

The value that should have been attributed was $1,101,000. Rates modelling for 2020/21 was based on this inaccurate data which resulted in the average rate increase applied being 2.07% instead of the rate cap of 2%. The additional 0.07% rate increase resulted in an additional $6,046 being collected.

The error was not identified until after the rates notices were issued. Due to the costs involved in reissuing all rates notices, it is proposed to instead reduce the rate increase applied in 2021/22 to correct this error (e.g. if the rate cap for 2021/22 is set at 2%, Council will only apply 1.93% increase).

The Essential Services Commission has determined this error to be non-material and Council has provided an explanation as to how this happened. This will be included in the Commission’s public annual report.

Council has reviewed its processes around calculating its rate increases and implemented additional safeguards to ensure the error will not be repeated.