Rule 47 — GFR

Rule 47 User Charges. ‘User Charges’ is an important component of the non-tax revenues. Each Ministry/Department may undertake an exercise to identify the ‘user charges’ levied by it and publish the same on its website.

(i) While fixing the rates of user charges, the Ministries/Departments must ensure that the user charges recover the current cost of providing services with reasonable return on capital investment.

(ii) Any deviation from these principles shall be specifically recorded with reasons justifying the setting of user charges lower than the cost recovery norms, if any.

(iii) The rates of user charges should be linked with appropriate price indices and reviewed at least every three years.

(iv) In order to enable ease of revision of user charges, the rate of user charges shall be fixed, wherever possible through Rules or executive orders and not through a statute.