Home topics news Credit: Karsten Würth News News Deadline extension for energy incentive Yajush Gupta July 24, 2023 The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) has actively collaborated with various organizations to submit a joint proposal for the Small Business Energy Incentive. Their primary objective is to strongly advocate for an extension of the Incentive’s timeframe until at least 30 June 2025. The concern driving this plea is the potential failure of the Incentive to achieve its intended goals without a more extended duration. Presently, the proposed timeline for the Incentive’s implementation is scheduled to start on 1 July 2023 and end on 30 June 2024. However, COSBOA and other stakeholders have identified a significant issue with this plan. The necessary legislation to support the Incentive’s operation is unlikely to be passed by Parliament until August or September 2023 at the earliest. This delay means that businesses and their advisors will remain uncertain about eligibility and investment options under the Incentive until well into the financial year for which it is intended. A critical aspect brought to light by COSBOA is that many small businesses lack internal expertise in energy matters. Therefore, to fully benefit from the Incentive, they will require professional advice. Notably, small businesses highly value advice from peak bodies and engineering consulting experts. However, a clear and consolidated approach to providing such advisory services is currently lacking. In response to this issue, COSBOA has proposed a complementary program to be introduced alongside the Incentive. This program