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B-177024 1 (1974-05-31)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaafpv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 0 UNITED STATES GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE UWASHINGTON, D.C. 20548 GENERAL GOVERNMENT DIVISION B-177024 The Honorable ial C ,t The Secretary of Commerce I IIIIIIIllli I l11 11lllllii III Dear Mr. Secretary: LM095850 In our survey of various programs of the National Marine Fisheries 9 - Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), %i y. ax, ed. eectivities of the Market News Service,, Statistics and Market News DivisJ in. The Service p rovides market news reports to subscie' s, at no. cost, to. aid them in the orderly marketing of fish and fish produiits. For fiscal year 1974, NMFS budgeted about $600, 000 to provide the m-arket news service to about 11, 000 subscribers. The budget did not include annual mailing costs of about $126, 000. NMFS has not charged for this service on the premise that it is pro- vided in the public interest. We believe that direct benefits accrue to certain subscribers but that few benefits accrue to the general public. For example, price information enables the fisherman to land his fish where the most favorable prices prevail and fish-landing information apprises buyers and wholesalers of where fish are available. Accord- ingly, certain subscribers should be charged fees for the market news service that will recover the full costs of providing such service. CRITERIA FOR CHARGING FEES The Government's general policy of charging fees is expressed in title V of the Independent Offices Appropriation Act of 1952 (31 U.S. C. 483a), commonly called the User Charge Act, as follows: It is the sense of the Congress that any work, service publication, report, document, benefit, privilege authority, use, franchise, license, permit, certificate, registration or similar thing of value or utility performed, furnished, provided, granted, prepared, or issued by any Federal agency to or for any person (includ- ing groups, associations, organizations, partnerships, corpora- tions, or businesses) 11 * * shall be self-sustaining to the full extent possible, and the head of each Federal agency is author- ized by regulation to prescribe therefore such fee, charges, or price, if any, as he shall determine * to be fair and equit- able taking into consideration direct and indirect cost to the Gov- ernment, value to the recipient, public policy or interest served, and other pertinent facts 92

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