CANBERRA, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Australian online shoppers will be hit with a 5 Australian dollar (3.88 U.S. dollar) tax for every parcel posted from overseas under a new government plan.
Parcels containing clothing, makeup and books worth less than 1,000 AUD (776 USD) will be subject to the tax, which the Department of Home Affairs said would counter the soaring cost of security screening inbound parcels.
The proposal has been condemned by the opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP), calling it "yet another new tax from the supposed 'low tax' government."
"The new import taxes will affect millions of Australian consumers who purchase online and from overseas retailers every year," ALP Consumer Affairs spokesperson Tim Hammond said in a statement.
Approximately 38.7 million parcels worth less than 1,000 AUD each arrived in Australia in the financial year ending in June 2017, a 22 percent increase on the previous year.
According to a Department of Home Affairs discussion paper, that figure is projected to increase by a further 31 percent over the next four years.
The department said the parcels were putting the country's bio-security budget under pressure because each one was subject to security screening.
"As the volume of imported low value consignments continues to grow, so too do the costs of biosecurity, cargo and trade border activities for those consignments," the paper, published by Fairfax Media on Wednesday night, said.
"This has created increasing inequity and cross-subsidisation, where importers of high value consignments are paying for the border activities attributable to other users."
Under the proposal, freight and express couriers would be hit with the tax, but the industry has made it clear that any additional costs would be passed on to consumers.
