More than 35,000 unpaid Emergency Service Levy invoices were referred to RevenueSA’s debt management service in the past year, up from 25,116 the previous year.

The 40 per cent increase in the year to May has fuelled Opposition calls for the Weatherill Government to “adopt Liberal policy” and scrap the contentious ESL increases.

The cash grab has been a political thorn in the Government’s side – albeit a boon for its depleted budget revenues – since a 50 per cent remission was scrapped in 2014, freeing up more than $90 million a year for general revenue.

The Opposition today revealed Treasury documents released under Freedom of Information detailing a significant spike in outstanding ESL debt.

“The Weatherill Government has instructed RevenueSA debt collectors to recover $11,233,682 from the 35,000 South Australians who can’t pay – at an average of $320 per debt,” said Opposition Leader Steven Marshall.

“In 2014 – prior to the savage increases in the ESL – RevenueSA was chasing $5,448,866 from 25,116 taxpayers at an average of $217 per debt.”

Treasury referred 17,334 unpaid cases for collection in the year to May 2012, 23,767 the following year and 25,116 in 2014.

But the number spiralled by more than 10,000 to 35,188 in the year since the bill increases came into effect. RevenueSA reports it has “completed” 22,830 of those cases, collecting $6.7 million in previously unpaid levies.

However, that still leaves around $4.6 million in unpaid ESL debt it is attempting to collect for the past financial year.

Some home and business owners have publicly called for a boycott on the contentious levy increase, while CFS volunteers have also been up in arms.

Marshall speculated the rise in unpaid bills would represent a mix of such protesters and genuine hardship cases.

“I think it’s a combination,” he said.

“I think some people don’t want to pay their bill … but many people are just struggling to make ends meet.”

While the remission remains in place for pension card holders, Marshall suggested self-funded retirees would be doing it particularly tough amid this week’s stockmarket plunge.

“Self-funded retirees are going to find their purse-strings at home really tightening,” he said.

“This brutal increase in tax on the people of SA comes at a time when we have the highest unemployment rate in the nation.”

The state’s unemployment rate stood at 7.9 per cent, seasonally adjusted, last month, after hitting a 15-year high of 8.2 per cent for June.

The Government has this afternoon disputed the Opposition’s interpretation of the data.

Premier Jay Weatherill said while 35,000 late notices might have been sent, only 17,379 were followed up with further action.

“That’s a relatively small increase on the year before,” he said.

He accused the Opposition of “selectively using numbers”.

InDaily has seen the FoI documents in their entirety, which do not highlight the 17,379 outstanding notices in the “Year To Date” data. A covering letter from the department’s Freedom of Information Officer does however emphasise that the 35,188 invoices referred to RevenueSA “means that the unpaid invoice was referred to Revenue SA’s Debt Management Services for follow-up”.

“This occurs after the invoice has been outstanding for some time,” she wrote.