[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 187 (Thursday, September 26, 2002)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 60596-60599]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-24309]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

49 CFR Part 594

[Docket No. NHTSA 2002-12939; Notice 2]
RIN 2127-AI77


Schedule of Fees Authorized by 49 U.S.C. 30141

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), DOT.

ACTION: Final rule.

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SUMMARY: This document adopts fees for Fiscal Year (FY) 2003 and until 
further notice, as authorized by 49 U.S.C. 30141, relating to the 
registration of importers and the importation of motor vehicles not 
certified as conforming to the Federal motor vehicle safety standards 
(FMVSS).
    We are increasing the fee for the registration of a new registered 
importer (RI) from $584 to $655, and the annual fee for renewing an 
existing registration from $416 to $455. These fees include the costs 
of maintaining the RI program. The fee required to reimburse the U.S. 
Customs Service for conformance bond processing costs will increase 
from $5.75 to $6.20 per bond. The fee that a RI must pay as a 
processing cost for review of each conformity package that it submits 
to NHTSA will increase from $16 to $18 per certificate. However, if the 
vehicle has been entered electronically with the U.S. Customs Service 
through the Automated Broker Interface and the registered importer has 
an e-mail address, the fee for processing the conformity package will 
continue to be $6, provided that the fee is paid by credit card. If 
NHTSA finds that the information in the entry or the conformity package 
is incorrect, the processing fee will be $18, but if the importer 
electronically corrects that information, the processing fee will be 
$12.

DATES: The effective date of the final rule is October 1, 2002.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For non-legal issues, you may call Mr. 
Luke Loy, Office of Vehicle Safety Compliance, Office of Safety 
Assurance, NHTSA (202-366-5308).
    For legal issues, you may call Mr. Coleman Sachs, Office of Chief 
Counsel, NHTSA (202-366-5238).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

[[Page 60597]]

Introduction

    The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, as amended by 
the Imported Vehicle Safety Compliance Act of 1988, and recodified as 
49 U.S.C. 30141-30147 (``the Act''), provides for fees to cover the 
costs of the importer registration program, the cost of making import 
eligibility determinations, and the cost of processing the bonds 
furnished to the Customs Service. Certain fees became effective on 
January 31, 1990, and have been in effect, with modifications, since 
then. On June 24, 1996, we published a notice in the Federal Register 
at 61 FR 32411 that discussed the rulemaking history of 49 CFR part 594 
and the fees authorized by the Act. The reader is referred to that 
notice for background information relating to this rulemaking action.
    The Act requires us to ``review and make appropriate adjustments at 
least every 2 years in the amounts of the fees required to be paid. * * 
*'' 49 U.S.C. 30141(e). The fees applicable in any fiscal year (FY) are 
to be established before the beginning of such year. Ibid. We last 
amended the fee schedule in 2000. See final rule published on September 
19, 2000 at 65 FR 56497. Those amendments have applied in FY 2001 and 
2002. On August 16, 2002, we proposed fees that would become effective 
on October 1, 2002, the beginning of FY 2003 (67 FR 53552). There were 
no comments on this notice. As a result, we are adopting the proposal 
as the final rule.
    The fees are based on actual time and costs associated with the 
tasks for which the fees are assessed, and reflect the slight increase 
in hourly costs in the past two fiscal years attributable to the 3.57 
and 4.52 percent raises (including the locality adjustment for 
Washington, DC) in salaries of employees on the General Schedule that 
became effective, respectively, on January 1, 2001 and January 1, 2002.

Requirements of the Fee Regulation

Section 594.6--Annual Fee for Administration of the Importer 
Registration Program

    Section 30141(a)(3) of Title 49 U.S.C. provides that RIs must pay 
``the annual fee the Secretary of Transportation establishes * * * to 
pay for the costs of carrying out the registration program for 
importers * * *'' This fee is payable both by new applicants and by 
existing RIs. For an RI to maintain its registration, it must file a 
statement at the time it submits its annual fee affirming that the 
information it previously furnished in its registration application (or 
in later amendments) remains correct (49 CFR 592.5(e)).
    In compliance with the statutory directive, we reviewed the 
existing fees and their bases for the purpose of establishing fees that 
would be sufficient to recover the costs of carrying out the 
registration program for importers for at least the next two fiscal 
years. The initial component of the Registration Program Fee is the fee 
attributable to processing and acting upon registration applications. 
We will increase this fee from $345 to $395 for new applications. We 
will increase the fee representing the review of the annual statement 
from $177 to $195. The adjustments reflect our recent experience in 
time spent reviewing both new applications and annual statements with 
accompanying documentation, as well as the inflation factor 
attributable to Federal salary increases and locality adjustments in 
the past two years since the regulation was last amended.
    We must also recover costs attributable to maintenance of the 
registration program that arise from our need to review a registrant's 
annual statement and to verify the continuing validity of information 
already submitted. These costs also include anticipated costs 
attributable to possible revocation or suspension of registrations.
    Based upon our review of the costs associated with this program, 
the portion of the fee attributable to the maintenance of the 
registration program is approximately $260 for each RI, an increase of 
$21. When this $260 is added to the $395 representing the registration 
application component, the cost to an applicant equals $655, which is 
the fee we are adopting. This represents an increase of $71 from the 
existing fee. When the $260 is added to the $195 representing the 
annual statement component, the total cost to the RI is $455, which 
represents an increase of $39.
    Sec. 594.6(h) recounts indirect costs that were previously 
estimated at $13.90 per man-hour. This will be raised $0.95, to $14.85, 
based on the agency costs discussed above.

Sections 594.7, 594.8--Fees To Cover Agency Costs in Making Importation 
Eligibility Determinations

    Section 30141(a)(3) also requires registered importers to pay 
``other fees the Secretary of Transportation establishes to pay for the 
costs of * * * (B) making the decisions under this subchapter.'' This 
includes decisions on whether a vehicle sought to be imported is 
substantially similar to a motor vehicle originally manufactured for 
import into and sale in the United States, and certified as meeting the 
FMVSS, and whether it is capable of being readily altered to meet those 
standards. Alternatively, where there is no substantially similar U.S.-
certified motor vehicle, the decision is whether the safety features of 
the vehicle comply with or are capable of being altered to comply with 
the FMVSS. These decisions are made in response to petitions submitted 
by RIs or manufacturers, or pursuant to the Administrator's initiative.
    The fee for a vehicle imported under an eligibility decision made 
pursuant to a petition is payable in part by the petitioner and in part 
by other importers. The fee to be charged for each vehicle is the 
estimated pro rata share of the costs in making all the eligibility 
determinations in a fiscal year.
    Inflation and the small raises under the General Schedule also must 
be taken into account in the computation of costs. However, we have 
been able to reduce our processing costs through combining several 
decisions in a single Federal Register notice as well as achieving 
efficiencies through improved word processing techniques. Accordingly, 
we are maintaining the fee of $175 presently required to accompany a 
``substantially similar'' petition at the same level, and are also 
maintaining at the same level the $800 fee that accompanies petitions 
for vehicles that are not substantially similar and that have no U.S.-
certified counterpart. In the event that a petitioner requests an 
inspection of a vehicle, the fee will remain at $550 for each of those 
types of petitions.
    The importer of each vehicle determined to be eligible for 
importation pursuant to a petition currently must pay $125 upon its 
importation, the same fee applicable to those whose vehicles are 
covered by an eligibility determination on the agency's initiative 
(other than vehicles imported from Canada that are covered by vehicle 
eligibility numbers VSA-80 through VSA-83, for which no eligibility 
determination fee is assessed). The importation fee varies depending 
upon the basis on which the agency made the import eligibility 
decision. For vehicles covered by eligibility decisions resulting from 
petitions under 49 CFR 593.6(b), based on the safety features of the 
vehicle complying with, or being capable of being modified to comply 
with all applicable FMVSS, the fee will remain at $125. For vehicles 
covered by eligibility decisions resulting from petitions under 49 CFR 
593.6(a), based on the substantial similarity of the

[[Page 60598]]

vehicle to a vehicle that was originally manufactured for importation 
into and sale in the United States and certified by its manufacturer as 
complying with all applicable FMVSS, the fee will remain at $105. Costs 
associated with previous eligibility decisions on the agency's own 
initiative will have been recovered by October 1, 2002. We will apply 
the fee of $125 per vehicle only to vehicles covered by decisions made 
by the agency on its own initiative on and after October 1, 2002.

Section 594.9--Fee To Recover the Costs of Processing the Bond

    Section 30141(a)(3) also requires a registered importer to pay 
``any other fees the Secretary of Transportation establishes * * * to 
pay for the costs of--(A) processing bonds provided to the Secretary of 
the Treasury'' upon the importation of a nonconforming vehicle to 
ensure that the vehicle will be brought into compliance within a 
reasonable time or if the vehicle is not brought into compliance within 
such time, that it is exported, without cost to the United States, or 
abandoned to the United States.
    The statute contemplates that we will make a reasonable 
determination of the cost to the United States Customs Service of 
processing the bond. In essence, the cost to Customs is based upon an 
estimate of the time that a GS-9, Step 5 employee spends on each entry, 
which Customs has judged to be 20 minutes.
    Because of the modest salary and locality raises in the General 
Schedule that were effective at the beginning of 2001 and 2002, we are 
increasing the current processing fee by $0.45, from $5.75 per bond to 
$6.20.

Section 594.10--Fee for Review and Processing of Conformity Certificate

    This fee requires each RI to pay $16 per vehicle to cover the cost 
of the agency's review of any certificate of conformity furnished to 
the Administrator. However, if a RI enters a vehicle with the U.S. 
Customs Service through the Automated Broker Interface (ABS), has an e-
mail address to receive communications from NHTSA, and pays the fee by 
credit card, the fee is $6. Based upon an analysis of the direct and 
indirect costs for the review and processing of these certificates, we 
have found the costs for processing non-automated entries to have 
increased on the average of $2 per vehicle. We are therefore increasing 
the fee for recovering these costs to $18. Since there has been no 
change in the cost to the agency for processing automated entries, we 
are maintaining the fee for recovering these costs at the current $6 
level. However, if an ABS entry contains one or more errors, the 
timesaving advantages of electronic entry are not realized. 
Accordingly, we will be assessing the full $18 fee for processing 
certificates based on ABS entries with one or more errors. However, if 
an acceptable electronic correction of the erroneous entry is sent to 
NHTSA, the fee will be $12 rather than $18.

EFFECTIVE DATE: NHTSA is required under 49 U.S.C. 30141(e) to ``review 
and make appropriate adjustments at least every 2 years in the amounts 
of the fees'' relating to the registration of importers and the 
importation of motor vehicles that are not certified as conforming to 
the FMVSS. The statute further requires the agency to ``establish the 
fees for each fiscal year before the beginning of that year.'' Fiscal 
year 2003 begins on October 1, 2002. In the NPRM, we proposed to make 
this rule effective October 1, 2002, and did not receive any comments 
on this issue. In order to meet the statutory deadline, the agency 
finds under 5 U.S.C. Sec.  553(d)(3) that it has good cause to make 
this final rule effective less than thirty days after its publication 
in the Federal Register. Accordingly, the effective date of this final 
rule is October 1, 2002.

Rulemaking Analyses

A. Executive Order 12866 and DOT Regulatory Policies and Procedures

    This rulemaking action was not reviewed under Executive Order 
12886, ``Regulatory Planning and Review.'' Further, NHTSA has 
determined that the action is not significant under Department of 
Transportation regulatory policies and procedures. Based on the level 
of the fees and the volume of affected vehicles, NHTSA currently 
anticipates that the costs of the final rule will be so minimal as not 
to warrant preparation of a full regulatory evaluation. The action does 
not involve any substantial public interest or controversy. There will 
be no substantial effect upon State and local governments. There will 
be no substantial impact upon a major transportation safety program. 
Both the number of registered importers and determinations are 
estimated to be comparatively small. A regulatory evaluation analyzing 
the economic impact of the final rule adopted on September 29, 1989, 
was prepared, and is available for review in the NHTSA docket.

B. Regulatory Flexibility Act

    The agency has also considered the effects of this action in 
relation to the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. Sec. 601 et seq.). 
I certify that this action will not have a substantial economic impact 
upon a substantial number of small entities.
    The following is NHTSA's statement providing the factual basis for 
the certification (5 U.S.C. Sec. 605(b)). The amendment will primarily 
affect entities that currently modify nonconforming vehicles and that 
are small businesses within the meaning of the Regulatory Flexibility 
Act; however, the agency has no reason to believe that a substantial 
number of these companies cannot pay the fees established by this 
action, which are either unchanged or only modestly increased from 
those now being paid by these entities, and which can be recouped from 
their customers. Costs to owners or purchasers for the alteration of 
nonconforming vehicles to conform with the FMVSS may be expected to 
increase (or decrease) to the extent necessary to reimburse the 
registered importer for the fees payable to the agency for the cost of 
carrying out the registration program and making eligibility decisions, 
and to compensate Customs for its bond processing costs.
    Governmental jurisdictions will not be affected at all since they 
are generally neither importers nor purchasers of nonconforming motor 
vehicles.

C. Executive Order 13132 (Federalism)

    Executive Order 13132 on ``Federalism'' requires NHTSA to develop 
an accountable process to ensure ``meaningful and timely input by State 
and local officials in the development of regulatory policies that have 
federalism implications.'' Executive Order 13132 defines the term 
``Policies that have federalism implications'' to include regulations 
that have ``substantial direct effects on the States, on the 
relationship between the national government and the States, or on the 
distribution of power and responsibilities among the various levels of 
government.'' Under Executive Order 13132, NHTSA may not issue a 
regulation that has federalism implication, that imposes substantial 
direct compliance costs, and that is not required by statute, unless 
the Federal government provides the funds necessary to pay the direct 
compliance costs incurred by State and local governments, or NHTSA 
consults with State and local officials early in the process of 
developing the proposed regulation.
    This rule will not have substantial direct effects on the States, 
on the relationship between the national government and the States, or 
on the distribution of power and

[[Page 60599]]

responsibilities among the various levels of government as specified in 
Executive Order 13132. Thus, the requirements of section 6 of the 
Executive Order do not apply to this rulemaking action.

D. National Environmental Policy Act

    NHTSA has analyzed this action for purposes of the National 
Environmental Policy Act. The action will not have a significant effect 
upon the environment because it is anticipated that the annual volume 
of motor vehicles imported through registered importers will not vary 
significantly from that existing before promulgation of the rule.

E. Civil Justice Reform

    This rule does not have a retroactive or preemptive effect. 
Judicial review of the rule may be obtained pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 702. 
That section does not require that a petition for reconsideration be 
filed prior to seeking judicial review.

F. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995

    The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-4) requires 
agencies to prepare a written assessment of the cost, benefits, and 
other effects of proposed or final rules that include a Federal mandate 
likely to result in the expenditure by state, local, or tribal 
governments, in the aggregate, or by the private sector, of more than 
$100 million annually. Because this rule will not have an effect of 
this magnitude, no Unfunded Mandates assessment has been prepared.

List of Subjects in 49 CFR Part 594

    Imports, Motor vehicle safety, Motor vehicles.

PART 594--SCHEDULE OF FEES AUTHORIZED BY 49 U.S.C. 30141

    In consideration of the foregoing, 49 CFR part 594 is amended as 
follows:
    1. The authority citation for part 594 continues to read as 
follows:

    Authority: 49 U.S.C. 30141, 30166; delegation of authority at 49 
CFR 1.50.


    2. Section 594.6 is amended by
    A. Revising the introductory text of in paragraph (a),
    B. Revising paragraph (b),
    C. Changing the year ``2000'' in paragraph (d) to read ``2002,''
    D. Revising paragraph (h); and
    E. Revising paragraph (i).
    The revised text reads as follows:


Sec.  594.6  Annual fee for administration of the registration program.

    (a) Each person filing an application to be granted the status of a 
Registered Importer pursuant to part 592 of this chapter on or after 
October 1, 2002, must pay an annual fee of $655, as calculated below, 
based upon the direct and indirect costs attributable to: * * *
* * * * *
    (b) That portion of the initial annual fee attributable to the 
processing of the application for applications filed on and after 
October 1, 2002, is $395. The sum of $395, representing this portion, 
shall not be refundable if the application is denied or withdrawn.
* * * * *
    (h) * * * This cost is $14.85 per man-hour for the period beginning 
October 1, 2002.
    (i) Based upon the elements, and indirect costs of paragraphs (f), 
(g), and (h) of this section, the component of the initial annual fee 
attributable to administration of the registration program, covering 
the period beginning October 1, 2002, is $260. When added to the costs 
of registration of $395, as set forth in paragraph (b) of this section, 
the costs per applicant to be recovered through the annual fee are 
$655. The annual renewal registration fee for the period beginning 
October 1, 2002, is $455.

    3. Section 594.7 is amended by revising paragraph (e) to read as 
follows:


Sec.  594.7  Fee for filing petitions for a determination whether a 
vehicle is eligible for importation.

* * * * *
    (e) For petitions filed on and after October 1, 2002, the fee 
payable for seeking a determination under paragraph (a)(1) of this 
section is $175. The fee payable for a petition seeking a determination 
under paragraph (a)(2) of this section is $800. If the petitioner 
requests an inspection of a vehicle, the sum of $550 shall be added to 
such fee. No portion of this fee is refundable if the petition is 
withdrawn or denied.
* * * * *

    4. Section 594.8 is amended by revising the first sentence of 
paragraph (c) to read as follows:


Sec.  594.8  Fee for importing a vehicle pursuant to a determination by 
the Administrator.

* * * * *
    (c) If a determination has been made on or after October 1, 2002, 
pursuant to the Administrator's initiative, the fee for each vehicle is 
$125. * * *

    5. Section 594.9 is amended by reviving paragraph (c) to read as 
follows:


Sec.  594.9  Fee for reimbursement of bond processing costs.

* * * * *
    (c) The bond processing fee for each vehicle imported on and after 
October 1, 2002, for which a certificate of conformity is furnished, is 
$6.20.

    6. Section 594.10 is amended by revising paragraph (d) to read as 
follows:


Sec.  594.10  Fee for review and processing of conformity certificate.

* * * * *
    (d) The review and processing fee for each certificate of 
conformity submitted on and after October 1, 2002 is $18. However, if 
the vehicle covered by the certificate has been entered electronically 
with the U.S. Customs Service through the Automated Broker Interface 
and the registered importer submitting the certificate has an e-mail 
address, the fee for the certificate is $6, provided that the fee is 
paid by a credit card issued to the registered importer. If NHTSA finds 
that the information in the entry or the certificate is incorrect, 
requiring further processing, the processing fee shall be $18. However, 
if the importer electronically corrects the incorrect information, the 
processing fee shall be $12 rather than $18.

    Issued on: September 19, 2002.
Annette M. Sandberg,
Deputy Administrator.
[FR Doc. 02-24309 Filed 9-25-02; 8:45 am]
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