BackOn 27 September 2023, Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass tabled her Investigation into the Department of Transport and Planning’s implementation of the zero and low emission vehicle charge. The report details a range of failures in the State Government’s implementation of the road-user charge for electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (ZLEVs) under the Zero and Low Emission Vehicles Act 2021 (Vic).
The Ombudsman received more than 30 complaints about the application of the ZLEV Act. These complaints concerned two main issues – whether the charges were unreasonably applied, considering how owners used their vehicles, and whether additional charges imposed after submitting a late odometer declaration were wrong.
One driver of a plug-in electric hybrid, a vehicle that can use either fuel or electric power, reported travelling thousands of kilometres in remote parts of Australia using fuel, as there were no charging stations. Despite the driver paying fuel excise on those kilometres, the Department did not waive the additional hundreds of dollars payable under the ZLEV charge.
“We found an unreasonable lack of policy guidance to those administering the legislation, inflexible handling of complaints, and an unwillingness to exercise discretion. It is also wrong to charge penalties not provided for in legislation, and the money collected under this ‘penalty’ should be repaid.” Ms Glass said.
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Source: The Office of the Victorian Ombudsman, Australia
