The rate peg - described as the maximum percentage amount by which a council may increase its general income - has been set at 0.9 per cent for Bathurst Regional Council for 2022-23.

The rate peg decision is made by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART), which, for the first time, has taken into account council areas' rate of population growth - and how some councils face higher costs from growing populations.

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Mr Jones said Bathurst Regional Council supported, "if calculated correctly", the "inclusion of a population growth factor as a separate element which may vary between council areas".

But he said the population growth factor that had been included in Bathurst Regional Council's 0.9 per cent rate peg was 0.2 per cent and that figure "significantly underestimates the actual population growth in the Bathurst Regional local government area".

As a means of comparison, Byron Shire Council's rate peg has been set at 2.3 per cent, Camden at 5.0 per cent, Dungog at 2.4 per cent and Shellharbour at 2.1 per cent.

In the Central Tablelands and Central West, Blayney, Oberon, Lithgow, Orange, Dubbo Regional and Mid-Western (which incorporates Mudgee, Gulgong and Rylstone) rate pegs are all 0.7 per cent.

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IPART's population factor calculations show Bathurst Regional Council area having a population of 43,612 in June 2019 and 43,996 in June 2020 - an increase that was greater than nearby Orange, which went from 42,445 to 42,503.

Asked if the rates peg would allow council to make any progress on reducing its infrastructure backlog, which has previously been estimated at just over $100 million, Mr Jones said the rate peg for Bathurst "will result in a negative growth for council's finances".

"To maintain a balanced budget for next year and the future years, council is now forced to revisit, and revise down, the service levels and initiatives previously planned for those years," he said.

Asked if council believed IPART should have also taken into account the loss to council incomes due to COVID, Mr Jones said council acknowledged that "IPART's brief is to look only at the costs incurred by local government, and not reduction of revenues".

"Given the extraordinary circumstances that the pandemic has caused, it is appropriate that all the impacts that COVID has had on council's financials should be considered when determining the rate peg," he said.