Superannuation funds and other entities within the financial services industry should not have to pay for the regulatory activities of Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), according to the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA).
The big superannuation group has restated its opposition to the Government imposing a cost on super funds to cover AUSTRAC, in a submission responding to a draft cost-recovery impact statement issued by the body in April.
In that submission, ASFA has also sought to gain clarity around the degree to which superannuation funds will be impacted by a levy to fund AUSTRAC.
It said that in previous submissions it had sought clarity around the basis upon which the so-called "large entity" component of the levy would be applied to superannuation funds.
It said this clarity was required around whether the EBITDA (earnings before income tax expense, net financing costs, depreciation and amortisation) of the trustee not the trust (ie, the superannuation fund) is the applicable measure for determining whether a fund is liable for the large entity component.
ASFA then went on to say that in previous submissions to AUSTRAC it had "expressed our strong opposition to the Government's policy to recover AUSTRAC's regulatory costs from reporting entities".
"We do not intend to restate the reasons behind ASFA's position again in this submission. However we feel it is appropriate to draw your attention to these prior submissions which contain, in detail, the reasons behind our objections to the AUSTRAC levy," it said.
ASFA has previously stated that it does not believe the industry should be required to fund AUSTRAC because it is Government, not the industry, which is benefiting from the resultant activities.
