Australian watchdog receives 630 carbon tax complaints in 10 days
12 Jul 2012
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said yesterday that it has received only 630 complaints about carbon related prices since the launch of the controversial carbon tax last week.
Julia Gillard's federal government introduced a tax of $23 a tonne of greenhouse gases from 1 July, bringing around 300 of the country's largest business entities under the carbon tax net. (See: Australia launches controversial carbon tax)
ACCC chairman Rod Sims said, ''The number of carbon related complaints and enquiries received so far is not a large proportion of complaints to the ACCC, given that we received over 8,350 general complaints in that period.''
It represents around 7.5 per cent of the total complaints received during the first 10 days. Overall, the number of complaints received about small businesses and retailers has been reported low.
Most of the carbon related complaints were concerning price increases in electricity and gas bills which were over 250 or around 40 per cent, followed by landfill, building, construction and refrigerant gases sectors.
''Although complaint numbers are low, we know these are important issues for people and we are working with businesses to ensure consumers are not duped into accepting a price increase they may otherwise question,'' Sims said.
The watchdog has launched active investigations on 20 cases.
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