adminreporters in Canberra that the MRRT is designed to be flexible and there are no plans to change its form. He also rejected claims that revenue would not even cover administration costs.
Deputy Prime Minister and Treasure Wayne Swan also defended the MRRT by telling parliament: “We need a resource rent tax for our children and grandchildren.”
Swan announced last week that the MRRT has raised just 126 million Australian dollars (US$129,8 million) in its first six months against a full-year forecast of A$2 billion (US$2,06 billion).
The government has blamed the shortfall on volatile commodity prices while the Opposition Coalition says the tax is flawed. The iron ore price reached a three-year low of US$85 a tonne on September 5, 2012, but had recovered to about US$110 a tonne by the time the government made its mid-year budget update in October. The opposition said Prime Minister Julia Gillard and treasurer Swan should take the blame for negotiating the 30 percent tax with the three big mining companies, namely BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata.
“The coalition has said for some time that Labour’s MRRT was a fiscal train wreck in the making,” shadow assistant treasurer Mathias Cormann said in a statement.
Australian Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt, calling the current laws a “dud”, introduced a Bill yesterday to plug the loophole that allows the miners to deduct from their tax liability all past and future royalty payments to states.
MRRT revenue is supposed to pay for a number of initiatives, including the tax concessions from an increase in the superannuation guarantee from 9 percent to 12 percent, the removal of the 15 percent super contributions tax for low-income earners and small business tax breaks. – Xinhua.
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