Notice2023-06466
2023 Rates for Grain Inspection Services Under the United States Grain Standards Act
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Published
March 29, 2023
Issuing agencies
Agriculture DepartmentAgricultural Marketing Service
Abstract
The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is announcing the 2023 rates it will charge for official inspection and weighing services, supervision of official inspection and weighing services, and miscellaneous fees for other services performed under the United States Grain Standards Act, as amended. This action publishes the annual review of fees and the resulting fees.
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 60 (Wednesday, March 29, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 60 (Wednesday, March 29, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18512-18514]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-06466]
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Notices
Federal Register
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or proposed rules that are applicable to the public. Notices of hearings
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Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 60 / Wednesday, March 29, 2023 /
Notices
[[Page 18512]]
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Agricultural Marketing Service
[Doc. No. AMS-FGIS-22-0095]
RIN 0581-AD94
2023 Rates for Grain Inspection Services Under the United States
Grain Standards Act
AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, Department of Agriculture
(USDA).
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is announcing the
2023 rates it will charge for official inspection and weighing
services, supervision of official inspection and weighing services, and
miscellaneous fees for other services performed under the United States
Grain Standards Act, as amended. This action publishes the annual
review of fees and the resulting fees.
DATES: Applicable April 1, 2023.
ADDRESSES: Prospective customers can find the fee scheduled posted on
the Agency's public website: <a href="https://www.ams.usda.gov/about-ams/fgis-program-directives">https://www.ams.usda.gov/about-ams/fgis-program-directives</a>.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Denise Ruggles, FGIS Executive Program
Analyst, USDA AMS; Telephone: 816-702-3897; Email:
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#591d3c37302a3c7714770b2c3e3e353c2a192c2a3d38773e362f"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="1450717a7d67713a593a4661737378716754616770753a737b62">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The United States Grain Standards Act
(USGSA) provides the Secretary of Agriculture with the authority to
charge and collect reasonable fees to cover the costs of performing
official services and costs associated with managing the program. The
regulations require that Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS)
annually review the national and local tonnage fees, supervision fee,
and fees for service (7 CFR 800.71).
Overview of Schedule A (Official Inspection and Weighing Services) Fee
Calculations
The USGSA and its implementing regulations (7 CFR 800.71(a)(1))
require FGIS to maintain and operating reserve not less than 3 and not
more than 6 months. To comply with this requirement, FGIS conducts an
annual review of its tonnage fees and operating reserves. Tonnage fees
are calculated according to 7 CFR 800.71(b)(1). After calculating the
tonnage fees, FGIS reviews the amount of funds in the operating reserve
at the end of the fiscal year (FY2022 in this case) to ensure that it
has 4\1/2\ months of operating expenses. FGIS uses 4.5 months of
expenses as its target amount because section 800.71(b)(3) of the
regulations identifies 4.5 months as the trigger for whether FGIS
should make adjustments to its fees. If the operating reserve has more,
or less than 4\1/2\ months of operating expenses, then FGIS must adjust
all Schedule A fees. For each $1,000,000, rounded down, that the
operating reserve varies from the target of 4\1/2\ months, FGIS will
adjust all Schedule A fees by 2 percent. If the operating reserve
exceeds the target, all Schedule A fees will be reduced. If the
operating reserve does not meet the target, all Schedule A fees will be
increased. The maximum annual increase or decrease in fees is 5 percent
(7 CFR 800.71(b)(3)(i)-(ii)).
Tonnage fees for the 5-year rolling average tonnage were calculated
on the previous 5 fiscal years (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022).
Tonnage fees consist of the national tonnage fee and local tonnage fee
and are calculated and rounded to the nearest $0.001 per metric ton.
Calculation of national tonnage fee. The national tonnage fee is
the national program administrative costs for the previous fiscal year
divided by the average yearly tons of export grain officially inspected
and/or weighed by delegated States and designated agencies, excluding
land carrier shipments to Canada and Mexico, and outbound grain
officially inspected and/or weighed by FGIS during the previous 5
fiscal years.
The fiscal year 2023 national tonnage fee, prior to the operating
reserve review, is $0.031 per metric ton. The calculation of this fee
is based on FY2022 national administrative costs of $3,793,021, divided
by 5-year rolling tonnage average of 121,598,996.
Table 1--National Tonnage Inspected
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fiscal year Metric tons
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018.................................................... 129,687,652
2019.................................................... 107,896,235
2020.................................................... 110,090,771
2021.................................................... 136,574,792
2022.................................................... 123,745,530
5-year Rolling Average.................................. 121,598,996
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Calculation of local tonnage fee. The local tonnage fee is the
field office administrative costs for the previous fiscal year divided
by the average yearly tons of outbound grain officially inspected and/
or weighed by FGIS field offices during the previous 5 fiscal years.
Table 2--Local Tonnage Inspected by Field Office
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5-year rolling
Field office FY 2018 FY 2019 FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022 average
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Orleans.................................................... 66,996,126 57,807,378 59,768,303 72,482,289 68,880,711 65,186,961
League City.................................................... 8,424,216 7,939,994 9,318,595 12,877,525 8,335,121 9,379,090
Pacific Northwest.............................................. 4,643,241 2,530,648 3,331,672 4,136,482 2,720,001 3,472,409
Toledo......................................................... 1,802,762 1,597,584 948,840 1,154,856 1,191,938 1,339,196
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[[Page 18513]]
The local field office administrative costs for fiscal year 2022
and the fiscal year 2023 calculated local field office tonnage fee,
prior to the operating reserve review, are as follows:
Table 3--Local Administrative Costs and Calculated Local Tonnage Fee by
Field Office
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FY 2022 local Calculated FY
Field office administrative 2023 local
costs tonnage fee
------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Orleans......................... $1,372,632 $0.021
League City......................... 665,113 0.071
Pacific Northwest................... 414,143 0.119
Toledo.............................. 354,073 0.264
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Operating reserve. In order to maintain an operating reserve that
is not less than 3 and not more than 6 months of operating expenses,
FGIS reviewed the value of the operating reserve at the end of FY 2022
to ensure that an operating reserve equivalent to 4\1/2\ months of
operating expenses is maintained.
The program operating reserve at the end of fiscal year 2022 was
$3,036,951, with a monthly operating expense of $2,983,587. The target
of 4.5 months of operating reserve is $13,426,143. Therefore, the
operating reserve is less than 4.5 times the monthly operating expenses
by $10,389,192. For each $1,000,000, rounded down, above the target
level, all Schedule A fees must be increased by 2 percent. The
operating reserve is $10.4 million below the target level, implying a
20 percent increase in fees is required. However, section
800.71(b)(3)(i) limits annual fee changes to 5 percent, which will not
increase the operating reserve to the minimum statutory amount of 3
times the monthly operating expenses. In addition to this fee
adjustment, and pursuant to section 800.71(c) of the regulations and
Sec. 7(j)(4) of the USGSA, FGIS is reviewing all fees to ensure they
reflect the true costs of providing and supervising official service.
In this notice for 2023, FGIS is increasing all the 2022 Schedule A
fees for service in Schedule A in paragraph (a)(1) by 5 percent,
including calculated fiscal year 2023 national and local tonnage fees.
All Schedule A fees for service are rounded to the nearest $0.10,
except for fees based on tonnage or hundredweight. Schedule A fees will
be outlined in FGIS Directive 9180.74 and published on the agency's
public website. For example, national and local tonnage fees are
adjusted as follows:
Table 4--National Tonnage Fee With Operating Reserve Adjustment and FY 2022 Fee
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Calculated FY
Fee description Calculation with operating reserve 2023 tonnage FY 2022
adjustment fee tonnage fee
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
National (Delegated States/Designated $0.031 plus 5% increase ($0.002) $0.033 $0.057
Agencies). equals $0.033.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table 5--Field Office Tonnage Fee With Operating Reserve Adjustment and FY 2022 Fee
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Calculated FY
Calculation with operating reserve 2023 tonnage FY 2022
Fee description adjustment fee (national tonnage fee
+ local)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Orleans................................ local fee $0.021 plus 5% increase $0.055 $0.077
($0.001) equals $0.022.
League City................................ local fee 0.071 plus 5% increase 0.108 0.102
(0.004) equals 0.075.
Pacific Northwest.......................... local fee 0.119 plus 5% increase 0.158 0.198
(0.006) equals 0.125.
Toledo..................................... local fee 0.264 plus 5% increase 0.310 0.181
(0.013) equals 0.277.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7 CFR 800.71(a)(2) Schedule B Calculations
FGIS calculates the supervision tonnage fee using the prior year's
actual costs and the 5-year average tonnage of domestic U.S. grain
shipments inspected, weighed, or both, including land carrier shipments
to Canada and Mexico.
Operating reserve adjustment. In order to maintain an operating
reserve not less than 3 and not more than 6 months, FGIS reviewed the
value of the operating reserve at the end of FY 2022 to ensure that an
operating reserve of 6 months is maintained.
The operating reserve adjustment is the difference between FY 2022
ending reserves and the operating reserve threshold, which is
equivalent to 6 months of supervisory costs. FY 2022 supervision costs
were $1,227,210. The operating reserve threshold for FY 2023 is
calculated by dividing FY 2022 supervision costs by 2 ($1,227,210/2 =
$613,605). FY 2022 operating reserve ending balance ($1,201,070)
exceeds the operating reserve threshold ($613,605) by $587,465.
Therefore, the operating reserve adjustment for calendar year 2023 is -
$587,465.
Supervision tonnage fee. FGIS adds the total prior year supervision
costs and the operating reserve adjustment, then divide the result by
the previous 5-year average tonnage. If the calculated fee is zero or a
negative value, FGIS will suspend collection of supervision tonnage
fees for the next calendar year.
The supervision tonnage fee for calendar year 2023 is $0.003 per
ton. The calculation, based on FY 2022 supervision costs of $1,227,210,
is $1,227,210 plus the operating reserve
[[Page 18514]]
adjustment of -$587,465, which equals $639,745, divided by 5-year
average tonnage of 227,390,200, which equals $0.003 per ton.
Table 6--Tonnage Supervised
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fiscal year Metric tons
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018................................................. 234,298,085
2019................................................. 206,693,881
2020................................................. 237,649,430
2021................................................. 232,738,700
2022................................................. 225,570,903
5-year Rolling Average............................... 227,390,200
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Therefore, for 2023, FGIS will assess supervision tonnage fee of
$0.003 per ton on domestic shipments officially inspected and/or
weighed, including land carrier shipments to Canada and Mexico,
performed by delegated States and/or designated agencies on or after
April 1, 2023. The Schedule B fee will be published in FGIS Directive
9180.74 and on the agency's public website.
7 CFR 800.71(d) Miscellaneous Fees for Other Services Calculations
Registration certificates and renewals. FGIS calculates the
application fee by multiply the Schedule A non-contract hourly rate
(Table 1 in Sec. 800.71(a)) by a quantity of five. The resulting fee
is expected to cover FGIS personnel costs to review applications, fee
publication expenses, and administrative expenses. The Schedule A non-
contract hourly rate is $69.50. Thus, the application fee for 2023 will
be $69.50 times 5, or $347.50. The fee will be published on the
agency's public website after Federal Register publication.
Designation amendments. FGIS calculates the rate using the Federal
Register publication rate for three columns, plus one hour of
noncontract hourly rate from Sec. 800.71(a) Table 1 of Schedule A. The
fee covers FGIS personnel costs, administrative expenses, and Federal
Register publication costs. The Federal Register publication rate $151
per column and the Schedule A non-contract hourly rate is $69.50. FGIS
calculates the fee will be $522.50 for calendar year 2023. The fee will
be published on the agency's public website after Federal Register
publication.
Authority: 7 U.S.C. 71-87k.
Melissa Bailey,
Associate Administrator, Agricultural Marketing Service.
[FR Doc. 2023-06466 Filed 3-28-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE P
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