Summary: This fact sheet responds to congressional concerns about the total number and amount of user fees, taxes, and other charges, excluding fines and penalties, that have been levied on the commercial maritime industry. GAO identified 12 federal agencies that levied a total of 117 diverse assessments for total collections of nearly $12 billion in fiscal year 1991. The assessments were intended to generate revenue or reimburse the agency for expenses incurred in providing a service. This fact sheet discusses in detail the agencies and their assessment activities, the payors of assessments, assessment amounts and totals collected, exemptions from assessments, and proposed assessments. GAO summarized this report in testimony before Congress; see: Transportation: Federal Assessments Levied on Commercial Maritime Industry, by John H. Anderson, Jr., Associate Director for Transportation Issues, before the Subcommittees on Coast Guard and Navigation and Merchant Marine, House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries. GAO/T-RCED-93-24, Mar. 25, 1993 (14 pages).
