The Western Australian Government has announced it will wind back a recent decision on decreasing penalty interest rates to support families.

 

The move to increase the rates was initially proposed to support families by reducing penalty rates on late payments, but the Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) successfully argued that the move would be counter-intuitive and would result in increased costs for the average ratepayer.

 

The move would have seen the penalty interest charged by Local Government on late rates payments from 11 per cent down to seven per cent.

 

“While the move was well intentioned, WALGA demonstrated to the Minister that it would actually have the opposite effect to helping families,”  WALGA President Mayor Troy Pickard said.

 

“WALGA estimated it would have created a $6 million shortfall which would have had to be recovered through rates increases which would actually result in most ratepayers having to pay more.”