Best practice pricing principles and the politics of water pricing
Best practice pricing principles and the politics of water pricing
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DOI：
10.1016/j.agwat.2014.01.011
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发表时间：
2014-11-01
影响因子：
6.7
通讯作者：
Pawsey, Nicholas
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Cooper, Bethany;Crase, Lin;Pawsey, Nicholas
据称，澳大利亚在水部门进行经济改革方面取得了相当大的进展，包括为水用户制定了反映成本的价格。水市场的高度发展，特别是在农业地区，以及为计量和将资本成本及其替代纳入用水者支付的费用而作出的实质性努力，都证明了这一点。然而，最近政府为确保更多的水用于环境目的而采取的对策引起了对灌溉基础设施的大量公共投资，可以说这让人想起了过去的政策时代（例如，见Musgrave，2008年）。这一最新政策反应的一个至关重要但未得到充分研究的特点是，灌溉者随后没有义务支付反映公共资助的灌溉基础设施成本的水价。本文探讨了建立水费的过程中，一般是成本反映和对比这些政治影响，可以显着扭曲最佳实践水价。一个评估框架，借鉴体现在国家水倡议，水行业监管令和维多利亚州基本服务委员会法（2001年）的最佳做法定价原则被用作一个框架，考虑改进的领域。虽然特别注意的是，在澳大利亚的维多利亚的安排，我们认为，谨慎的风险，政治干预灌溉水定价应广泛理解。(C)2014爱思唯尔有限公司版权所有。
Considerable progress has been claimed regarding the establishment of economic reforms in the water sector in Australia, including the development of cost-reflective pricing for water users. This is evidenced by the highly developed status of water markets, especially in agricultural areas, and the substantive efforts that have been made to measure and include the cost of capital and its replacement in charges paid by water users. However, recent government responses to secure additional water for environmental purposes have given rise to a spate of public investments in irrigation infrastructure arguably reminiscent of bygone eras of policy (see, for example, Musgrave, 2008). A critically important, but under-investigated feature of this latest policy response, is that irrigators are subsequently not obliged to pay water prices that reflect the cost of publicly funded irrigation infrastructure. This paper investigates the processes for establishing water charges that are generally cost reflective and contrasts these with the political influences that can markedly distort best practice water pricing. An assessment framework that draws from best practice pricing principles embodied in the National Water Initiative, the Water Industry Regulatory Order and the Victorian Essential Services Commission Act (2001) is used as a framework to consider areas of improvement. Whilst special attention is given to arrangements in Victoria, Australia, we argue that caution about the risks of political interference in water pricing in irrigation should be broadly understood. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.