The Government has reduced the $40 fee to access online business registries maintained by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to $19 and extended the fee exemption to all journalists for all registry searches.
According to Minister for Revenue and Financial Services, Kelly O’Dwyer, the search fees were cut to reduce the burden on individuals and businesses that needed to access company roles and relationship extracts from the online registries.
O’Dwyer also said the exemption fees would facilitate free access to important information and journalists would qualify where they were seeking access to the information in the course of their professional work.
The changes, advocated by Centre Alliance Senator, Rex Patrick, would not affect ASIC’s resourcing from the Budget.
