BHP results show why a tax is needed on resource profits, Treasurer Wayne Swan says

BHP results show why a tax is needed on resource profits, Treasurer Wayne Swan says Rosanne Barrett, Ben Packham and Dennis Shanahan From: The Australian February 16, 2011 11:59AM 14 commentsIncrease Text SizeDecrease Text SizePrintEmail Share

Add to DiggAdd to del.icio.usAdd to FacebookAdd to KwoffAdd to MyspaceAdd to NewsvineWhat are these?TREASURER Wayne Swan has seized on BHP Billiton's 72 per cent jump in first-half net profit today, saying it showed why Australia needed a tax on resource company profits.

He said the result reflected the strength of the sector and its ability to pay the revised Minerals Resource Rent Tax.

"That's why we fought really hard for a resource rent tax," Mr Swan said.

"It's pretty clear that we were not going to get the original proposal through, it was very clear that we needed to design a tax with different features - which raise less tax.

"But what we will see in the future of the resource industry is that it is very strong.''

He has dismissed figures revealing a $60 billion shortfall in revenue from the MRRT compared to the dumped Resources Super Profits Tax as "nothing new whatsoever".

Treasury documents show the minerals resource rent tax will earn the government $38.5 billion by 2020-21, compared to the $99 billion Kevin Rudd's resources super profits tax was expected to bring in.

The Treasurer said 10-year projections were "highly variable" and affected by a range of factors.

"We said it would raise significantly less revenue than the previous proposal,'' Mr Swan said.

"We said this at the time. The revenue that flow from the MRRT is still strong, it's still important.''

Julia Gillard told reporters in New Zealand today that there would be no further changes to the resources tax despite the Treasury estimates.

The Prime Minister defended her compromise on the MRRT, which she negotiated with the miners after dumping Kevin Rudd's proposed RSPT last year.

''We always understood that the mining tax on the basis of profits meant there would be years when there was high tax collections and years when there would be lower tax collactions,'' she said in Wellington.

''Understanding the design of the tax we made the expenditure decisions which use that revenue to make a difference to company tax rates, our pool of national savings through superannuation and help for small business,'' she said.

Greens leader Bob Brown called for the original tax proposal to be reinstated, saying mining companies were ripping $60 billion out of taxpayers' pockets.

"BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto will export billions at the expense of Australians, giving away revenue that could fund services and infrastructure, including the proposed $5 billion universal disability insurance scheme,'' he said.

Ms Gillard rejected this suggestion, saying she was not prepared to move at all on the MRRT.

''We will deliver through the Parliament the tax as I agreed it with Australia's biggest mining companies,'' she said.

But the Coalition today called for the mining tax to be scrapped, given its substantially-lower take than the original RSPT, proposed by Kevin Rudd.

"Just when you thought Labor's appalling record with its resources tax couldn't get any worse, Treasury figures show that the tax, and the Gillard Government budget, is built on a house of cards,'' resources spokesman Ian Macfarlane said.

BHP Billiton's net profit jumped to a record $US10.52 billion （$10.6bn） in its first half from $US6.14 billion a year ago, as demand for industrial raw materials surged along with the recovery of the global economy.

The world's biggest mining company said revenue for the six months to the end of December was up 39 per cent to $US34.17bn from $US24.57bn a year earlier.

BHP, the world's fifth-largest public company by market capitalisation, will pay an interim dividend of US46 cents compared with US42c the previous year, and announced plans to return $US10bn to shareholders through a buyback this year.

（source from：The Austrlian National Affiar）