The government has introduced a package of bills to give the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority power to increase the amount of levies it can collect from the entities it regulates.

The seven Levy Imposition Amendment Bills (each covering a different industry segment) increase the statutory upper limit on APRA levies from A$1.5 million, which has applied since 2005, to $10 million.

Starting on July 1, the bills also amend the formula for the factor used to index the limit. The limit will be indexed by the change in CPI over 12 months plus 0.03.

The items for which costs can be recovered has also been expanded. Under the current law the levy can be used to cover the cost of: providing market integrity and consumer protection functions for prudentially regulated institutions; administering the functions of making determinations about the release on compassionate grounds of benefits that are in a superannuation entity or retirement savings account; and governing and maintaining the superannuation transactions network.

The bill introduces additional items: costs incurred in connection with promoting the interests of consumers in markets in which leviable bodies operate; and costs relating directly or indirectly to the regulation of leviable bodies.

The intention of the bills is to ensure that the Commonwealth can recover the costs of a wider range of activities that are recoverable through the financial institution supervisory framework.