The federal government is proposing to impose a levy of up to $500,000 on superannuation funds to recoup the compensation it provided to the victims of fraud from the Trio Capital collapse.
Treasury yesterday said it would use a formula of charging “0.0001977” cents times the net assets of a super and approved deposit fund to recover the around $55 million in financial assistance it provided to members of four funds formerly under the trusteeship of Trio.
The minimum charge under the proposal is $50 and the maximum $500,000.
Last month, Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten said more than 5000 victims of the Trio fraud would be compensated for 100 per cent of their eligible loss.
“Investors in APRA (Australian Prudential Regulation Authority) regulated funds deserve to be compensated by the government when they lose their investments through fraud or other malfeasance by super fund trustees. I’m very pleased to be able to offer Trio investors this compensation,” Shorten said.
“The Gillard government considers it vital that members of the community have complete confidence the framework surrounding superannuation is robust.”
He said the grant of financial assistance would be recovered by a levy on regulated super funds under the Superannuation (Financial Assistance Funding) Levy Act 1993.
Investigations into Trio by ASIC and APRA are continuing.
Interested parties are invited to submit comments on the proposal by 16 May.
