Australia's mineral resources lease tax reform has reached a stalemate

In order to implement the controversial mineral resources lease tax, Australia’s Finance Minister Shiwang recently plans to force states and territories to agree to abandon local resources concession fees. If the federal government adopts this proposal, this long-term tug of war will end up with the victory of mining companies.

Earlier, in order to quell disagreements with the mining giants on the new taxation system, the government not only reached a peace agreement with them, but also appointed a special task force to implement the revised mining tax policy. Last week, the Mining Advisory Committee, led by the former BHP Billiton Board of Directors **DonArgus and Federal Minister of Resources Martin Ferguson, submitted a report on the Mining Resources Lease Tax (MRRT) to the federal government.

According to a report by the Ministry of Commerce cited by Huasheng.com, the Mining Advisory Committee pointed out in its report that current and future resource royalties levied on mineral resources such as iron ore and coal mining should be paid into the federal government. The new mine tax, and the state and territorial governments should establish a system to ensure that governments at all levels will no longer plan to increase resource royalties.

Once the committee's proposal is raised to law, the Australian federal government will protect the mining industry with annual export value of 71 billion U.S. dollars by not raising the concession rights of future levels of government resources, and will be the federal government restricting future tax increases in local ownership. A special case.

According to Australian media reports, the proposal was welcomed and supported by the miners. The Minerals Council of Australia stated: "Any concession tax paid by a future mining company can be used to offset mineral resources lease tax."

However, small mining companies and state and territory leaders do not agree with this proposal. The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies pointed out that the vast majority of iron ore and coal companies are still “extremely worried” about the impact of new taxes on their future investments and decisions. Colin Barnett, Governor of Western Australia, further stated: “We will never agree to allow the federal government to impose a cap on the mining tax in our state.”

In this regard, Shi Wang said: "I'm sure there will always be people who disagree with this result, but most people will realize that this is in the interest of the country and is also in the interest of the mining company. According to Shiwang, the government will Gradually discussions were held with the states and territories and they promised "We will not allow them to raise the mining tax indefinitely."

Previously, due to disagreements between the federal government and the mining giant on which parties paid when taxes were raised by state and territory governments, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto once intended to withdraw from the previous agreements signed in October this year.

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