Council is conscious of the needs of its consumers which require a reliable and high-quality water supply that complies with the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. Council is also aware of ensuring that its pricing policies must permit the renewal and upgrading of its water network infrastructure so that current service levels can be maintained into the future.

The following principles are applied in the Revenue Policy:
1. Full cost recovery inclusive of both direct and indirect costs.
2. Seeking to achieve an operating surplus before capital amounts each within 2 financial years
3. Ability to fund the Capital Program to maintain service levels by renewing ageing
infrastructure.
4. Infrastructure is upgraded where is required to maintain service to standards of service for
user’s needs.
5. Statutory charges are applied in accord with legislative requirements.
6. Capacity to service any borrowing requirements.
7. Price changes are communicated to consumers on a timely basis.
8. GST is applied in accordance with regulatory requirements.

Council applies the principles of the Regulatory Assurance Framework (RAF) developed by the Department of Climate Change, Environment, Energy and Water when it comes to determining its fees and charges.

In summary, the following pricing regime exists for Central Tablelands Water:

1. A two-part pricing policy of an availability charge, determined on the diameter of the meter, and a straight- line consumption charge.
2. There are no non-residential cross subsidies.
3. Water accounts are rendered quarterly so that users have a timely record of consumption
and costs. Some major consumers are billed monthly.
4. Development Service Charges are set in accord with methodology set down in accord with
the Development Servicing Plan. These charges are indexed annually in accord with
movements in the Sydney City CPI.
5. Dedicated fire services connections are charged the fee applicable to a 20mm meter service.
Full access charges apply if the fire service is used for purposes other than fire control or testing of the service. Testing should be advised to Council to ensure that a full access charge is not levied. Lack of notification resulting in administrative work will attract an administration
processing fee of $55.
6. Pensioner rebates are processed per the Local Government Act.

Council has reviewed its Revenue Policy for 2025/26 with the main features being:

1. An increase in the consumption charge of 4.00% from $3.96 to $4.12 per kilolitre (kl) to assist with increased operational costs and maintain standards of service
2. Availability charges will increase by 20% and applied in accordance with the Flow Capacity Factors outlined below (meter size of service connection, determines the load that a service can put upon the network.
3. A new availability charge will now apply for vacant unconnected properties which are located within 225 metres of a water pipe, in accordance with Section 552(b) of the LG Act. This has been set at 50% of the 20mm meter fee that applies to connected properties.
4. Bulk Supply Water charges to other Councils will rise by 4.0% to $2.47 per kl in line with the change in the consumption charge.
5. Development contributions have been set in accordance the 2021 Development Servicing Plan (DSP) (as per the movement in the Sydney CPI all groups).
6. Legal Expenses incurred for debt recovery purposes includes all associated costs, including early stage and late-stage intervention in accordance with Council’s Water Charges Debt Recovery Policy.
7. Section 603 Certificate fees have been set at the approved level of $100 in accordance with the advice from the Office of Local Government.
8. Special Reading fees have been set at $100.
9. The fee at Council’s automatic filling stations (AFS) will be set at $9.00 per kl. Council has undertaken significant expenditure for upgrades to the AFS during 24/25 to improve the reliability of those stations.
10. The fee at Council’s standpipes will be set at $10.50 per kl.
11. Service connection fees and private works will be priced upon application depending upon the nature and scope of those works.
12. The processing fee for customer requested account refunds will be set at $55.00.
13. In accordance with the directive of the Office of Local Government (OLG) interest applied on overdue accounts will be at the rate of 10.5%.
14. The fee for undertaking pressure and flow testing requested by consumers will be $350.00 to provide for recovery of costs including overheads.
15. A new fee has been introduced to cover the installation of Backflow Prevention devices. It has been set at cost plus 15%.
16. A new fee has also been introduced to cover the cost of Backflow inspections, if an annual inspection is not undertaken by the property owner.

The availability charge is calculated by multiplying the charge for a standard 20mm connection by the flow capacity factor (FCF) listed in the Flow Capacity Table below.

Flow Capacity Table 

An ET is calculated in accordance with the Section 64 Determination of Equivalent Tenement (ET) Guidelines, published by the NSW Water Directorate. It is important to note that blocks exceeding 2,000m2 in size are considered in the guidelines to exceed 1 ET.

The Developer Charges for the Lake Rowlands supply area have been increased by 4.1% being the CPI for Sydney for the past year (movement Dec 22 to Dec 23 - ABS 6401). The fee will be set at $7,179 per equivalent tenement. The capital contribution charge (for infill developments) in the Lake Rowlands supply area has also been set at $7,179 per equivalent tenement.

The capital contribution charge for all vacant unbuilt upon land within the Quandialla supply area is proposed to be $3,590 per ET. Funds raised by this charge will be set aside for renewal and augmentation (if required) of the Quandialla Scheme network infrastructure.