Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

The Treasurer has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

(1) (a) Total fuel tax credits paid in 2009-10 was $5 billion. According to the published ATO Taxation Statistics 2009-10 (page 133), the mining industry was paid $1.89 billion in fuel tax credits in 2009-10.

(1) (b) In claiming fuel tax credits, businesses provide only one industry code (ie ANZSIC). They are however often involved in multiple mining activities. The table below provides a breakdown of the mining industry by this singular industry code.

(2) Due to the operation of the secrecy provisions under Division 355, Schedule 1 of the Tax Administration Act 1953 (particularly section 355-25) the Commissioner of Taxation is unable to disclose information concerning the taxation affairs of individual taxpayers. The information requested does not fall within the exceptions set out in this division..

(3) (a) Data on the total deduction for mining and quarrying exploration and prospecting expenses is not available. However, as at 7 June 2011, for the 2009-10 income year, the value claimed for the decline in value of depreciating assets used in exploration or prospecting was approximately $8 billion, rounded to the nearest billion. This amount is a component of the total deduction for mining and quarrying exploration and prospecting that would have been claimed for the 2009-10 income year.

(3) (b) As per the response to (3) (a), the data required to answer this question is not available.

(4) (a) Information on accelerated depreciation is not collected separately from information on deprecation generally. Consequently, the total amount of accelerated deprecation claimed in any one year is not known.

(4) (b) As noted in (4) (a), data on accelerated depreciation is not available. However, there is data to show that the mining sector claimed deductions for total depreciation (accelerated depreciation and other depreciation) of approximately $11 billion (rounded to the nearest billion) in the 2008-09 year.

(4) (c) As noted in (4) (a), data on accelerated depreciation is not available.