Barwon Water’s $1.2m liability: Bill for carbon tax ‘to double’

By John Van Klaveren
BARWON Water faces carbon tax costs of $1.2 million a year for the next five years, its draft plan reveals.
The total is almost double the amount of carbon tax liability Barwon Water expected in February.
Barwon Water proposed a price increase of one per cent plus the consumer price index for its next five-year plan.
The authority’s 2013/2018 water plan is open for public comment before Barwon Water submits it for approval to Essential Services Commission (ESC) in September.
The authority already has a submission asking for a three per cent rise before the ESC.
But Barwon Water said the final decision on the three per cent would “impact on the starting position for prices” in the 2013/2018 plan.
The plan said the price rise would “help to finance investments made in infrastructure in the last five years in response to the extended drought and growing customer numbers”.
“Many of these investments were not anticipated at the time of the previous price review.”
The Independent reported in April that Barwon Water failed to report its entire infrastructure spending in a $130 million bungle.
The ESC warned Barwon Water it would have to mount a “strong” case to justify its unfunded expenditure.
The five-year plan said forecast capital expenditure was $354 million, down from $766 million in the 2008/2012 plan.
Operational expenditure was forecast to increase 14 per cent to $496 million, the plan said.
Reasons for the increased spending included work on a biosolids facility at Black Rock, additional energy use and electricity price rises.
“Barwon Water is moving from a period of significant investment in securing Geelong’s water supply to a new phase focussed on efficient delivery of quality services,” the plan said.
“(We are) committed to customer affordability and minimising price rises for our customers.”
The plan said demand for water was expected to rise 10.3 per cent to generate total required revenue of $944 million.