ASFA seeks legal clarity on AUSTRAC cost-recovery

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) is continuing to seek to minimise the costs imposed on superannuation funds by the activities of the Australian Transactions Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC).

In a submission to AUSTRAC this month, ASFA's chief executive, Pauline Vamos not only pointed to the costs being imposed on the superannuation industry, but the manner in which they were being calculated.

"We note that one of the components in the regulatory budget relates to the measure's implementation and ongoing administration costs, stated to be $1.8m in the first year and $1.7m in the subsequent years covered by the budget period," the ASFA submission said.

"This means that the cost associated with recovering the AUSTRAC levy will add more than six per cent to AUSTRAC's administration costs."

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ASFA considers this to be an unacceptable increase in operating costs and a good indication that imposing the levy will be somewhat inefficient and therefore contradictory of the Government's cost recovery guidelines which require agencies to recover costs only where it is efficient to do so," the submission said.

The ASFA submission also sought legal clarity from AUSTRAC confirming that, from a superannuation perspective, it is the trustee's earnings, not the earnings of the trust, which should be used in the calculation of the large entity component of the levy.