The consumer price index is 2.1 per cent.

West Tamar Council is recommended to approve raising its rates by 2.75 per cent at its meeting on Tuesday.

Mayor Christina Holmdahl said councillors seemed happy with the proposal.

"As a council we have always tried to keep rates as low as we can," she said.

"This was a fair price to cover the increase that we as a council also have. Our increases don't stop in terms of the services that we provide. So we just thought this was a pretty fair."

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Meander Valley Council is expected to pass a recommendation of a 2.5 per cent rise.

Mayor Wayne Johnston said it seemed to be a pretty standard rise across other municipalities.

"At the end of day, if CPI is 2.1 per cent and we've gone up .4 of a per cent on overall rates then I don't think any ratepayers could really complain about that," he said.

"I'd be disappointed if they did considering what we've put into the budget. We need some dollars to do things and if we didn't lift any more than CPI then we'd have no fat in the budget to do anything."

He said the rate was certainly down on last year's increase of more than 4.5 per cent.

"General discussion around the table was that everyone was comfortable with what had been explained to us. We're trying to keep it as low as we can but still have capacity to do things."

The rise will give the council an extra $246,800 for its services.

Meander Valley has the lowest rates of the Northern councils, with West Tamar the second highest.

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