ATFI User Fees

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on user fees collected between fiscal years (FY) 1993 and 1995 by the Federal Maritime Commission for access to its Automated Tariff Filing Information System (ATFI), focusing on whether or not original congressional budget estimates for ATFI user fees were being met. GAO noted that the: (1) actual revenues collected between FY 1993 and 1995 will total $438,800; (2) congressional budget estimate for the period totalled $810 million; and (3) large disparity between budget estimates and actual ATFI user fees is due to optimistic assumptions about the frequency with which tariff data are used and the shippers' ability to obtain tariff data from other sources.