(a) Surcharges calculated pursuant to Section 6353 shall be recovered from the transportation customer through the energy transporterâs normal billing process. (b) Surcharges collected from the transportation customer shall be remitted to the municipality granting a franchise pursuant to this division in the manner and at the time prescribed for payment of franchise fees in the energy transporterâs franchise agreement. In recognition of costs to be incurred by energy transporters in administering the surcharge established by this chapter, the energy transporter may retain interest earned on cash balances resulting from the timing difference between the monthly collection of the surcharge and the remittance thereof, as required by individual franchise agreements. (c) In the event that payment on a transportation customer closed account becomes more than 90 days delinquent, or a transportation customer notifies the utility that they refuse to pay the surcharge, the energy transporter shall, within 30 days, notify the municipality of the delinquency and provide information on the name and address of the delinquent transportation customer and the surcharge amount owed. The energy transporter shall not be liable for these delinquent surcharges. (d) The municipality, including its authorized officials, employees, and agents shall use the delinquent transportation customer information only for the purpose of enforcing the surcharge and shall not disclose the information to any officials, employees, agents, or any third parties who are not responsible for and involved in the enforcement of the municipalityâs franchise agreements. Nothing herein precludes the municipality, through appropriate officials, employees, or agents, from contacting the transportation customers in order to collect any surcharges due from the transportation customer. (e) By March 31 of each year, every person, firm, or corporation that transports gas or electricity to any other person, firm, or corporation within a municipality, upon request of the municipality, shall provide the names and addresses of each of its transportation customers and other information for the preceding calendar year as may be necessary for the municipality to enforce its taxes and fees. The municipality, including its authorized employees and agents, shall use the transportation customer information and any other customer specific information only for the purpose of enforcing its taxes and fees and shall not disclose the information to any officials, employees, agents, or any third parties not responsible for, and involved in, the enforcement of the taxes and fees. Nothing in this subdivision shall prohibit the municipality, through appropriate officials, employees, or agents, from contacting the customers in order to collect any taxes and fees due from the customer. (f) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any transportation customer information provided by an energy transporter to a municipality pursuant to this chapter or pursuant to a utility user tax ordinance is not a public record within the definitions contained in the California Public Records Act (Division 10 (commencing with Section 7920.000) of Title 1 of the Government Code). (g) In acknowledgment of the potential for systems startup costs to be incurred by the energy transporters in implementing this chapter, authorization is hereby granted for each energy transporter to retain 10 percent of the added fees collected pursuant to this chapter on transported gas or electricity for systems startup costs not to exceed seven hundred fifty thousand dollars ($750,000), provided that the portion of collections withheld by the energy transporter shall be apportioned to all municipalities based upon each municipalityâs share of total franchise fees allocated by the transporter in the prior calendar year. (h) Surcharges collected pursuant to this chapter shall be separately identified on the transportation customerâs
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