New Zealand’s New Passport Costs Are Inflated, Says Tax Payers' Union

Amidst the relief of restoring New Zealand passport’s life span to 10 years, there is concern that the projected costs from the government’s departments are high, compared to the cost of production for similar adult passports in Britain and Ireland.

The Taxpayers’ Union has come out with questions on the rationale of this kind of a cost computation. They are saying, across the world passports are getting cheaper, only in New Zealand officials are trying to double the costs. According to them, taxpayers will have to spend more to make Internal Affairs ministry subsidise more than $200 million so that by 2021 the costs of the new 10-year passports remains under $200. Research by the Taxpayers’ Union revealed that the projected production cost of NZ$404 by 2012 is twice the cost being incurred by the British and Irish governments in passport production.

Rising Costs

Cabinet papers showed a projection of costs in obtaining the passport to be $404 by 2021 if the Government does not subsidise the costs to lower the price. The Treasury has been opposed to the suggested increase from the present $135 to $180 as the amount would not cover the cost of producing the passports. Therefore, a consensus fee of $225 has been agreed up on but Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne prevailed upon Associate Minister Steven Joyce and revised the fee to $180 plus a capital injection of $20 million to cover the costs until July 2018.

The price variation will be like this.

· $135 - The current cost for a passport

· $225 - The cost ministers initially agreed on for a new passport

· $180 - The price the Government finally settled on per passport, to be backed by a $20 million Government cash injection until July 2018

· $404 - Treasury's estimate for how much a passport would need to cost, without any Government subsidy, by 2021

Inefficiency Blamed

Jordan Williams, Taxpayers’ Union, Executive Director noted that the Government is “relying on its own inefficiency to justify the inflated costs of New Zealand passports. In Ireland and the United Kingdom, the price of a passport reflects full cost of producing it, yet there is less fees, which is half, than the amount officials say our ten-year passports will cost.”

According to Williams, despite a similar volume, the Irish are doing it for $126 for which New Zealand officials say the cost will be $404. There is clearly room for efficiencies. Commenting on the Department of Internal Affairs Deputy Chief Executive Maria Robertson’s statement that the total costs will remain the same despite the lower number of passports under a 10-year regime, Williams said: “Ireland is comparable to New Zealand in terms of population but produces passports at less than half the cost. It suggests that Internal Affairs are basing their forecast cost of production on the costs it has now, rather than resources that are actually needed."

(For feedback/comments, contact the writer at k.kumar@ibtimes.com.au)