User fee

USER FEE: Any fee, tax, toll or other impost, whatever called, and however disbursed, paid to a facility owner /operator (city, state, nation, corporation or person), by facility users, as a necessary, (de jure or de facto) condition of use of the facility.

People pay user fees for the use of many public services and facilities. At the federal level in the US, there is a charge for walking to the top of the Statue of Liberty, to drive into many National parks, and to use particular services of the Library of Congress.

States may charge tolls for driving on highways or impose a fee on those who camp in state parks. Communities usually have entrance fees for public swimming pools and meters for parking on local streets as well as perhaps even parking spaces at public beaches, dump stickers and postage stamps. While user fees are a small share of federal and state revenue, they make-up 20 percent of revenues raised in local jurisdictions.

In international development, user fees refer to a system fees for basic health care, education, and/or other services which a developing country implements in order to make up for the costs of these services. The International Monetary Fund often recommends that nations start charging fees for these services in order to reduce their budget deficits. This position by the International Monetary Fund is more and more challenged by many who claim that user fees are the most regressive way of paying for social services. Some even argue that they should be free at the point of use.