You can't help but have noticed a lot of murmurs about carbon tax in the past few weeks – and much of the information will no doubt have gone over your head.
Tax is not the most interesting thing in the world, but it is something that impacts our everyday finances – perhaps more so than we would care to admit.
The new carbon tax is coming into force on July 1 and in simple terms is a charge imposed on polluters for every tonne of carbon they release into the atmosphere.
'So what?' I hear you ask. After all, everyday Aussies do not have as much of an impact as industrial-sized factories, right?
However, industry experts believe that the carbon tax could come back and bite us in the rear in the form of higher electricity bills. Just what we need, eh?
Fear not – there is still some hope for us yet in the form of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
Its chairman Rod Sims recently told the AAP that it will be keeping a close eye on electricity suppliers who try to slip excessive charges into our bills without noticing.
He conceded that it won't be possible to notice changes right down to the last cent, but the ACCC will do the best it can.
Financial models predict that with a carbon tax charged at $23 a tonne, there will be around a ten per cent rise to the average household bill.
"Most households pay about $200 a megawatt hour for their energy and there's a tonne of carbon in a megawatt hour, so it's pretty easy to see where you get a ten per cent figure," John pointed out.
There are of course ways you can insulate yourself against price rises, such as by installing solar panels.
Let's face it, the less energy you have to buy from the grid the better.
Posted by Bob Dawson