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Cost recovery annual review 2023: Proposed changes to fees, charges and levies

Have your say

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is consulting on:

  • increases to the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Levy
  • establishment charges for verification services
  • a range of small improvements to our cost recovery settings.

A summary of the proposals is on this web page. Full details are in the consultation document.

Consultation opened on 22 March and closes on 24 April 2023. 

Consultation document

Annual review: Proposed 2023 changes to MPI's cost recovery [PDF, 1.1 MB]

A summary of the proposals being considered

Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Levy

The consultation document considers a range of options to address financial deficits under the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Levy. The levy is paid by those that register agricultural compound and veterinary medicine products.

Deficits have arisen as a result of cost inflation since the last time the levy was set in 2015, along with demand for additional services.

MPI's preferred option would be to fully recover costs and see the levy increase from $540 per product per year to $1,176.

Find out more about levy rates

Establishment charges

The consultation document considers a range of options to address financial deficits under establishment fees for verification services.

Deficits have arisen primarily as a result of cost inflation since the last time the levy was set in 2015, including increased salaries to secure vets.

MPI's preferred option would increase charges by about 20% to fully recover anticipated future costs. This option does not recover historical deficits, as there is some uncertainty around their magnitude. A further review of charges may take place once historical deficits are clear.

Refer to Appendix 1, Part 7 of the Animal Products (Fees, Charges, and Levies) Regulations 2007 – NZ Legislation 

Other minor changes

A range of other changes are proposed to address inconsistencies and gaps. These are around:

  • establishing a fee for exemptions from the animal products' risk management programme
  • establishing a fee for infant formula audits required by China
  • an updated fee structure for approval of premises for export
  • on-call charges for veterinary inspectors in biosecurity and animal welfare-related work
  • call-out rates for veterinary inspectors in importing/exporting live animals
  • veterinary inspector rates at transitional and containment facilities
  • penal rates for verification services.

Making your submission

We welcome submissions on the proposals contained in the consultation document. Submissions must be received by 5pm on Monday, 24 April 2023.

We encourage you to use the submission template [DOCX, 117 KB]

Email your submission to costrecovery@mpi.govt.nz   

While we prefer email, you can post submissions to:

Cost Recovery Directorate (Corporate Branch)
Ministry for Primary Industries
PO Box 2526
Wellington 6140.

What to include

Make sure you include the following information:

  • the title of this consultation (Annual review of cost recovery settings 2023)
  • your name and title
  • your organisation's name (if applicable) and whether your submission represents the whole organisation or a section of it
  • your contact details (for example, phone number, address, and email).

Submissions are public information

Note that all, part, or a summary of your submission may be published on this website. Most often this happens when we issue a document that reviews the submissions received.

People can also ask for copies of submissions under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA). The OIA says we must make the content of submissions available unless we have good reason for withholding it. Those reasons are detailed in sections 6 and 9 of the OIA.

If you think there are grounds to withhold specific information from publication, make this clear in your submission or contact us. Reasons may include that it discloses commercially sensitive or personal information. However, any decision MPI makes to withhold details can be reviewed by the Ombudsman, who may direct us to release it.

Official Information Act 1982 – NZ Legislation