ASFA demands clarity on levy allocation

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) has urged for transparency on how the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) distributes and allocates levies. 

ASFA noted that APRA has not published a Cost Recovery Impact Statement (CRIS), outlining when the levies are used to recover costs according to the government’s cost recovery guidelines and when they are not. 

It also wants more transparency on how the costs of an activity are recovered through the levies process. 

“It is regrettable that industry is once again in the position of considering proposed levy amounts without access to the level of information necessary to make an informed assessment of the level of costs the Regulators are seeking to recover,” ASFA said in a submission to the 'Proposed financial industry levies for 2014-15’ consultation paper by APRA . 

In future, APRA should release a CRIS simultaneously with the release of the annual consultation paper laying out the proposed levies, and whenever there is change in activities related to cost recovery, ASFA said. 

ASFA also urged self-managed super funds be subject to the per member SuperStream levy. 

Although the revenue would be moderate, the total accumulated across the SMSF arena would be significant and would mean a more even distribution of the SuperStream costs across all funds, it said. 

It also argued that since non-levied entities such as employers also enjoyed the benefits of SuperStream, a slice of the SuperStream component should be fulfilled from consolidated revenue.  

ASFA is also unhappy the consultation paper does not specify how much money assigned to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) will be allocated to the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal. 

While $11.9 million will be allocated to ASIC to cover SCT and other activities, it does not outline the specific amount for SCT. 

This is in contrast to last year’s paper, which said $5.8 million will be allocated to run the SCT.