Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission Act 1997

A referring authority for a regulated service, or a utility providing a regulated service, may apply in writing to the commission for consent to a variation of a price direction in force for the service.

The commission may consent to the variation applied for by giving the applicant a written report (a consent report) to that effect.

The commission may consent to a variation only if satisfied on reasonable grounds that the variation is—

justified, having regard to the criteria listed at section 20 (2); and

in accordance with the current reset principles for the regulated service.

However, in deciding whether to consent to a variation, the commission must allow a declared fee to be passed on in full to consumers of the service.

The commission may not consent to a variation of a direction with the effect of—

varying, omitting or replacing the current reset principles for the regulated service, or any future reset principles included in the direction; or

including any future reset principles into the price direction.

The following sections apply to a consent report as if it were the final report into a price regulation investigation:

 section 21 (Final reports)

 section 23 (Confidential material in reports)

 section 24 (Presenting of reports to Legislative Assembly)

 section 24B (Correction of errors in reports).

When presented to the Legislative Assembly under section 24, a consent report has the effect of varying the provisions of the price direction as indicated in the report with effect from—

a day (or days) ascertained in accordance with the report; or

if a day is not ascertained in accordance with the report—14 days after the day the report is presented to the Legislative Assembly.

Division 4B.2 Nonconsent variations