Australia's consumer watchdog has ensured that over a quarter of a million Australians received refunds from businesses that breached the law during the introduction of the New Tax System, Joe Hockey, the Minister for Financial Services & Regulation, said today.
Over $5 million has been repaid to consumers or paid as donations to charity. This was money from GST price exploitation.
"The Government gave the ACCC extra powers to crack down on profiteers who incorrectly changed their prices during the introduction of the New Tax System, and that is just what our consumer watchdog has done," the Minister said.
"The ACCC has done a superb job in making sure Australian consumers enjoy the benefits of the New Tax System."
The figures are contained in the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's latest quarterly report into the implementation of the New Tax System.
Key findings in the report are:
- the ACCC has investigated 4175 GST-related matters since July 1999. Of these 337 matters are still under active consideration.
- the ACCC has sent nearly 6000 letters to traders of which 2300 were for more serious potential breaches of the Trade Practices Act.
- More than 450 businesses have had to take corrective action to remedy GST-related contraventions.
- 7 cases have been filed in court 5 of which have settled.
- 32 cases have been resolved by businesses providing court enforceable undertakings.
- 400 businesses have given administrative undertakings to the ACCC.
The ACCC's latest quarterly report is available at: www.joehockey.com