Proposed new passport fees were first circulated in October of last year - at the time, the government played it off, and put it off. But, in an April Fool's Day surprise, those new fees were authorized to come into effect on April first, and without any public notice.

A statutory instrument that was leaked out today lists an implementation day for the new fee schedule as April first, but they won't be officially implemented until tomorrow, April 4th.

The new fee for a 10 year passport for an adult is $200.00, a 400% increase over the previous $50.00 fee. The previous fee for minors was $30.00, that is now $150.00 a 500% increase.

The new fee for a temporary passport is $300.00 - which is a 20% increase.

And if you lost your passport, you have to pay an additional $200.00 in addition to the standard $200.00 application fee.

and to expedite your passport, it will now be $500.00 dollars, a 100% increase.

Like we said, we found out this afternoon when the image of the SI started whipping around via WhatsApp that the new fees will come into effect tomorrow.

Channel 7