The product stewardship for oil (PSO) encourages recycling of used petroleum-based oils and synthetic equivalents by paying a benefit to oil recyclers.
Under the program, a levy in the form of excise and customs duty is collected on all petroleum-based oil or synthetic equivalents produced in or imported into Australia. This levy funds the benefits paid to recyclers. Some oil recyclers are required to register for excise manufacture to be eligible for the benefit.
We conduct regular assurance activities, including:
- contact with oil recyclers
- sampling of the grades of oil produced under the program for category 1 clients
- assess scheme eligibility of all new registrants
- assure claim validity for the benefit.
For 2023–24 we estimated the net PSO gap to be 1.1% or $2.1 million.
In the latest year, there was an increase in the levy rate from $0.085 per litre to $0.142 per litre. This increase caused the increase in the levy collection for this year. The overall PSO gap is driven by the levy gap and when the collections are increased, so too is the estimate of the amount not collected. This is driving the increase in the net gap for 2023–24.
We expect the gap to continue to be low in future years, given the thoroughness of our compliance coverage.
This gap forms a part of our overall tax performance . Find out about the concept of tax gaps and the latest gaps available.
Table 1 shows the program amounts administered and the estimated gap from 2018–19 to 2023–24.
|
Element |
2018–19 |
2019–20 |
2020–21 |
2021–22 |
2022–23 |
2023–24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Program amounts administered ($m) |
125 |
127 |
148 |
132 |
138 |
187 |
|
Program gap ($m) |
0.6 |
1.0 |
1.2 |
1.1 |
1.2 |
2.1 |
|
Program gap (%) |
0.5% |
0.8% |
0.8% |
0.8% |
0.9% |
1.1% |
Figure 1 displays the trend in tax reported and the gap over the same period.
Figure 1: Program gap (percentage) – PSO, 2018–19 to 2023–24
For previously published tax gap figures, see Australian Tax Gaps - Data.gov.au Opens in a new window