THEY are the new taxes most probably haven't heard of, but consumers will soon be paying them when they buy bananas.
And we're are already paying them in the price of honey, chicken and eggs.
On Tuesday, while most Australians were distracted by changes to childcare and small business tax cuts, the Abbott government announced it had agreed to a request from the Australian Banana Growers' Council for a 0.75 cents a kilogram levy on the world's most popular fruit.
The council asked for the levy, which will apply from July, to repay costs incurred by the industry in its emergency response to eradicate the fungal disease banana freckle.
The industry launched a national response to wipe out the disease after it was detected on Cavendish bananas in the Northern Territory in July 2013.
The industry's share of costs is expected to be $10 million to $13 million over three years.
An outbreak of banana freckle in the NT in the late 1990s obliterated the territory's banana industry.
In another little-noticed impost, levies worth a total of three cents have been charged on each kilogram of honey since April 1.
The levies were requested by the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council to help it meet its biosecurity obligations.
On the same date, levies on eggs and chicken meat came into force to cover the industry's costs for its efforts to eradicate avian influenza.
The budget papers say the levy has been introduced at the request of the Australian Chicken Meat Federation and the Australian Egg Corporation.
The levy is worth 0.03c for every day-old chick for meat, and 1.4c per day-old chick for laying eggs.
The three levies are expected to raise $13.8 billion over five years.
