Title 18

SECTION 381.107

381.107 Direct billing.

§ 381.107 Direct billing.

(a) Applicability. If a filing presents an issue of fact, law, policy, procedural difficulty, or technical complexity that requires an extraordinary amount of expense to process, the Commission may institute a direct billing procedure for the direct and indirect costs of processing that filing. The Commission will make a direct billing determination under this paragraph not later than one year after receiving a complete filing from an applicant.

(b) Procedures. (1) Direct billing will not be instituted with respect to any filing until the person who submitted the filing is notified that direct billing will be applied to the filing in lieu of the fees established under this part.

(2) Any fee submitted with the filing will be applied, as a credit, to the amount billed directly for processing costs. The Secretary will thereafter periodically bill the person who submitted the filing for the actual direct and indirect costs of processing the filing.

(3) If the Commission institutes a direct billing for the costs of a hearing and reduces the fee to the applicant to less than full cost recovery due to the presence of intervenors, the Commission will consider, on a case-by-case basis, direct billing the intervenors for all or part of the reduced portion.

[Order 360, 49 FR 5081, Feb. 10, 1984, as amended by Order 433, 50 FR 40346, Oct. 3, 1985; 58 FR 2975, Jan. 7, 1993]