The due date for the report by the Senate Economics Legislation Committee on the Minerals Resource Rent Tax Amendment (Protecting Revenue) Bill 2012 has been extended to 21 March 2013.
The Bill had been introduced into the Senate on 12 September 2012 by the Greens. Its stated purpose is to “protect the revenue generated from the Minerals Resource Rent Tax from being eroded by state governments increasing royalties”. The Greens claim the Government’s mining tax laws have effectively given the states and territories a “blank cheque” to raise mining royalties by promising to rebate the cost of all royalties to the mining companies. The Bill would restrict the rebating of Commonwealth, State and Territory mining royalty amounts to those in place as at 1 July 2011. Any increases in royalties after that date would be disregarded in calculating royalty credits for the MRRT.
[LTN 226, 21/11]