Antinuclear

9 May: antidote to uranium lobby’s lies about its high taxes and royalties

AUSTRALIA’S URANIUM EXPORT REVENUE IN PERSPECTIVE  YELLOWCAKE FEVER Exposing the Uranium Industry’s Economic Myths , Australian Conservation Foundation “……BHP Billiton enjoys extensive subsidies in the  form of fuel-tax credits (formerly known as diesel  fuel rebates). Under the mine expansion plan, the  company would have enjoyed $350 million in diesel  fuel rebates over five years – more than was to  be paid to the State in royalties from the existing  underground mine over the same period – and an  effective subsidy of $85 million annually to 2050.

A 2012 Australia Institute report found that at a time  when the mining industry is earning record profits,  it received subsidies and concessions worth more  than $4 billion per year from the Federal Government alone. The biggest single subsidy comes in the form
of fuel-tax credits, valued at $1.9 billion in 2009/10

Uranium mining companies – and the Australian Uranium Association – fought the proposed Resources  Super Profits Tax in 2010. Ross Gittins wrote in The Age in February 2013: “Last year the mining industry  accounted for more than a fifth of all the profit made  in Australia, even though it had a much smaller  share of the economy. This was mainly because  the royalties charged by the state governments  failed to capture enough of the market value of the  minerals the largely foreign-owned miners were being  permitted to extract.

When the Rudd government tried  to correct this with a resource super profits tax, the  industry set out to bring about its electoral defeat.”

Uranium was to be included in the proposed  Resource Super Profit Tax, but it was subsequently  excluded from the Minerals Resource Rent Tax. A 2011 report by the Australia Institute notes  that the average rate of corporate tax paid by  the mining industry in 2008/09 was 13.9% –  substantially below the theoretical 30%…..”http://www.acfonline.org.au/sites/default/files/resources/ACF_Yellowcake_Fever.pdf

May 9, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics, uranium