ESCOSA content iconSimplifying annual reporting requirements for minor and intermediate retailers

  • Project Released: 02 Feb 2015
  • Project Closes: 01 Oct 2015
  • Contact: Peter Lim

Overview

Under the Water Industry Act 2012, the Commission is responsible for the economic regulation of water and sewerage services provided by minor and intermediate retailers. Our role includes licensing, consumer protection, performance monitoring, compliance and retail pricing matters.

To assist the Commission to perform its regulatory functions, it has issued the guidelines to licensees relating to the manner in which they report various compliance, operational and financial information to the Commission.

Status

Current status is Further info

  • Draft
  • Submissions
  • Final
  • Further Info

Final

The Commission has released its final decision on changes to the reporting requirements for minor and intermediate retailers set out in its Water Industry Guidelines.

This final decision paper sets out the Commission’s decision to simplify those requirements by amending its regulatory instruments to:

  • extend the submission date for the price monitoring reports to 30 November of each year, to align with the submission date for other annual reports to the Commission
  • simplify the pricing policy questionnaire (part of the price monitoring report)
  • simplify sign-off arrangements by requiring a single sign-off to cover all annual reports
  • correct any minor errors identified in the Water Industry Guidelines

These changes do not diminish consumer protections, but achieve the same regulatory outcome at a lower cost to retailers and, consequently, customers.

Further Info

Each year, water and sewerage service retailers with 50,000 or fewer connections assess their compliance against relevant National Water Initiative (NWI) pricing principles by completing a price monitoring questionnaire. The Commission recognises that retailers may require further guidance on applying certain aspects of the NWI Pricing Principles, and has therefore developed additional guidance to assist retailers in completing the annual price monitoring questionnaire.

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