The Telecommunications (Numbering Charges) Amendment Bill 1999 will facilitate minor amendments to the Telecommunications (Numbering Charges) Act 1997. The amendments will improve the efficiency of the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) in its administration of the Act, as well as providing some carriage service providers with some administrative efficiencies.

The Telecommunications (Numbering Charges) Act 1997 provides for imposition of charges in relation to certain telephone numbers allocated to carriage service providers.

The amendments contained in this Bill concern the definition of a transferred number for the purposes of the Act and the date on which the numbering charges are imposed.

As the Act stands carriage service providers who are resellers are liable for annual numbering charges in relation to allocated numbers they hold on the charging date. These resellers, or `secondary providers', have usually obtained their numbers from a provider who was allocated the numbers by the ACA, a `primary provider'.

The large number of transfers of numbers from primary to secondary providers greatly adds to the administrative complexity of collecting the charges.

This Bill will explicitly define a `transfer' for the purposes of the Act. The effect of this will be that certain number movements from primary to secondary providers will not be classed as transfers for the purposes of the Act and will not, therefore, cause the numbering charge liability to be transferred. This will significantly reduce the number of invoices the ACA has to prepare.

The effect of the Act as it currently stands is that number charges are imposed on 22 May each financial year. Carriage service providers have to pay these by 15 June to ensure they are processed prior to the end of the financial year. Between these two dates carriage service providers have to provide details to the ACA of the numbers they hold, the ACA then has to calculate the charges and dispatch the invoices, and then the carriage service providers have to make the payment. These timeframes are unnecessarily tight and can increase the risks of miscalculations or errors.

This Bill will move the charging date to a day in April which will be determined by the ACA. The ACA will be required to determine the date before 16 February each financial year. This arrangement will provide the ACA with a limited degree of flexibility in setting the date, while providing the carriage service providers with the certainty of the date being in April. It is not intended that the ACA will use this flexibility to alter the date arbitrarily. Rather, should it be necessary, it will allow the ACA to determine a date in order to address exceptional circumstances.