Under our draft decisions, increases in WAMC’s water management component charges would be limited to an average of 5% per year (i.e. 7.7% in year 1, 5% in year 2 and 5% in year 3) or 15.8% over the three years to 2027-28 (before inflation).
For customers on the Minimum Annual Charge (MAC), the increase in WAMC’s water management component would be limited to an average of 2.5% per year (i.e. 4.1% in year 1, 2.5% in year 2 and 2.5% in year 3) or 7.7% over the three years to 2027-28 (before inflation).
We received a high volume of submissions to our Issues Paper from stakeholders expressing concerns that the proposed increases in water charges (including those proposed by WAMC) could have significant detrimental impacts on water users, including agricultural and town water providers, and on regional and rural communities. In making our draft decisions we considered the affordability impacts of the proposed prices, opportunities to adjust projects, and how costs are shared between licence holders and the NSW Government.
In reaching our draft decisions, we also considered expert advice from Stantec on WAMC’s efficient capital and operating expenditure, and our legislative responsibilities.
Our draft decisions attempt to balance establishing the efficient costs of WAMC’s services and transitioning prices towards full cost reflective levels while mitigating the financial impact on water users.
We are seeking feedback on our draft decisions
You can have your say by making a submission before 1 July 2025. We will consider all feedback received before making our final decisions on WAMC’s maximum prices for the 2025 determination period to apply from 1 October 2025.