A consultation has launched on plans to increase the charges for some of Natural Resources Wales’ (NRW) permits and licences.
The Welsh government said the updates were designed to work better for business and the environment, as well to reduce the reliance on the taxpayer.
It is part of the largest review of NRW’s regulatory fees and charges since the organisation was established in 2013.
Under proposals laid out in the consultation, charge-payers would pay for the full services they use.
It also sets out proposals to make changes to a number of charging schemes associated with applications for new and amended permits.
Some charges will be new, and others will see significant increases, NRW explained.
Pending approval from Welsh ministers, new charges would be introduced from April 2023 for industry regulation, site based waste, water quality, water resources, reservoir compliance and introduction of species licencing charges.
NRW has also reviewed its annual subsistence fees, which primarily cover the fees for compliance monitoring.
If the new charges and fees are implemented, NRW said it would be able to invest more in its regulatory service "to face the challenges of the climate and nature emergencies".
Nadia De Longhi, head of regulation at NRW said: “We appreciate the financial impact our charging proposals might have on some businesses, especially given the wider cost of living pressures.
“While some of our permitting charges will be new, others have not been reviewed since NRW was established – or even long before that.
"The new charges will reflect the amount of regulatory effort actually needed to consider each application and, as a result, some individual charges will increase significantly, while others will decrease.
“We want to recover all of the costs of our regulation so that we can reinvest resources in more compliance activity and in preventing pollution happening in the first place.
"The outcome should be a fairer and more transparent charging system which will result in more effective protection and improvement of our natural environment.”
The consultation on the proposals for new permitting charge applications and annual review of subsistence charge balances will run for 12 weeks, closing on 6 January 2023.
The proposed charges will be introduced in April 2023 subject to Ministerial approval.
