TAX FILE: Hazmat carriers get fee break

Fees paid by transporters to fund the federal Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness grants program will be slashed by 50 to 85% under a final rule published in the Federal Register January 9. The grants support state and local hazmat emergency response planning and training, but the fees were raised to a level higher than needed in 2000. Consequently, DOT said it would lower the annual registration

KEN SIMONSON

Feb. 1, 2003

Fees paid by transporters to fund the federal Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness grants program will be slashed by 50 to 85% under a final rule published in the Federal Register January 9. The grants support state and local hazmat emergency response planning and training, but the fees were raised to a level higher than needed in 2000.

Consequently, DOT said it would lower the annual registration fee from $300 to $150 for small businesses and nonprofit organizations, and from $2,000 to $300 for other businesses, including a $25 processing fee. DOT also announced that approximately 4,550 advance registrants for 2003-04 and 2004-05, mostly small businesses, would receive refunds of the excess amounts they had prepaid.