PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) on Wednesday noted that the Productivity Commission’s latest Trade and Assistance Review 2018/19 repudiated the claim that Australian mining is subsidised.
The report states that tariff and budgetary assistance to mining is "disproportionately small", with the services and manufacturing sectors taking up most of the A$12.5-billion in assistance during 2018/19.
The Productivity Commission estimates that the effective rate of assistance for mining – the ratio of total assistance to output – was just 0.2% in 2018/19, the same low rate as the last three years.
“The report shows that in 2018/19, Australian mining incurred a net tariff penalty of A$55-million because of tariffs imposed on imported inputs into mining production,” MCA CEO Tania Constable said.
The commission also notes that budgetary assistance to mining has declined.
“Three-quarters of budgetary assistance attributed to mining consists of research and development tax incentive offsets, which are available to all industries.
“The mining industry underpins Australia’s economic prosperity, pays its fair share of tax and royalties with annual contributions of A$31-billion and provides more than 240 000 highly skilled, highly paid jobs, which contribute to strong and sustainable regional communities. The industry is also providing much-needed export revenue,” Constable added.
The A$12.5-billion budgetary assistance consisted of about A$2-billion in tariff output assistance, A$4.5-billion in budgetary outlays and A$7.4-billion in tax concessions, less A$1.7-billion in tariff input penalties.