The federal government has afforded ASIC a $34 million equity injection as part of this year’s federal budget spend, FPA deputy chief Deen Sanders has said.
The funding is a significant increase on last year’s spending of $8.4 million, according to Sanders.
“There is a statement in relation to an equity injection to ASIC’s fundings. It looks to be a $34 million equity injection, which compares to last year’s that was $8.4 million,” he said.
Sanders said the FPA was unsure how ASIC would use the funding, but speculated the corporate regulator may use the funds for enforcement actions.
“We’ll be interested to see how that is utilised and where that particularly is expended,” he said.
“It is a special equity injection. We suspect that it’s likely to be for enforcement actions or rather for other actions. So we look forward to seeing the detail to what that relates to.”
Sanders said the government also plans to make minor amendments to improve the operation of superannuation legislation.
The proposed changes will allow the commissioner of taxation to exercise some discretion for the purposes of contributions tax and potentially rectify punishing people who inadvertently overpay their contributions, he said.
“There is some discretion being allowed for the commissioner of taxation that we think will have revenue impacts. We are yet to know the nature of that discretion, but it’s a good initiative and one we support,” Sanders said.
Overall, Sanders said the budget was safe and sensible with no surprises.
