A recent surge in iron ore prices has not been enough to lift profits beyond the levels needed to trigger the mining tax, despite the government’s forecast of $2 billion in revenue from the controversial impost this year alone. The Australian can reveal that none of the big three miners BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata will make payments when they are due next week, while Fortescue Metals Group confirmed it would not do so either.
An unexpected surge in the global iron ore price has put the budget surplus back within reach.
The iron ore price had climbed from a September low of $US86 a tonne to $US135 a tonne when the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, abandoned his commitment to a budget surplus late last month. It has since risen to $US158 a tonne.
Forecasters from Deutsche Bank are expecting the price to hit $US170 a tonne within weeks.
If sustained, the near doubling of the iron ore price would boost company tax revenues and lead to a surge in mining tax payments, putting government revenue back to near what was forecast in the budget.
i cant believe he gets paid to write that rubbish.
how long until fairfax goes under?
mundi
14 Jan 13 at 9:14 am
So they’re going to pay an extra how many billion dollars in company tax?
.
14 Jan 13 at 9:25 am
Peter Martin really is quite easy to impress with bullshit – not really what you want in a journalist.
Steve
14 Jan 13 at 9:39 am
Um, this is in the companies’ taxable incomes for the 2012/13 year. I’m not sure that this is going to help the budget bottom line anytime before 2013/14.
eb
14 Jan 13 at 9:51 am
Yes, another case of Peter Martin stuffs up. He is developing quite a habit.
Judith Sloan
14 Jan 13 at 10:11 am
We shouldn’t forget it was Peter Martin who fell for the leaked ‘document’ on the Treasury costings of Coalition policies. I took one look at what was clearly tosh and threw it in the bin.
The episode ended up putting a lot of egg on Swanny and Martin’s faces. The Treasury didn’t come off too well,either. Well done, boys.
Judith Sloan
14 Jan 13 at 10:13 am
Mrtin also once reported that no one in the Coalition front bench had an economics qualification.
Sinclair Davidson
14 Jan 13 at 10:16 am
There’s a huge assumption here by Faifax, and that is the miners are selling all their product on the spot market, rather than via long term contracts.
If coal mine X has a 10 year contract to supply Japanese steel mill at $y per ton, then it doesn’t matter what happens in the spot market – their revenue won’t budge. The profits of a lot of miners probably have sod all to do with the spot price.
boy on a bike
14 Jan 13 at 10:31 am
Peter Martin is a highly regarded journalist working for Australia’s preeminent media company. I’m sure he is right.
Infidel tiger
14 Jan 13 at 10:36 am
It does seem that much of Martin’s and Fairfax’s “opinion” writing is just a belief as opposed to anything substantial. His IMF inspired article was similar. The Heat Wave rants are no different…and they wonder why the FXJ share price is where it is…! BTW, Michael Pascoes efforts aren’t any better. They seem to develop a thought bubble and just type. Recently Pascoe explained how Retailers were crying poor and his evidence was the recent share price movement of a couple of the big players.
Julian McLaren
14 Jan 13 at 10:44 am
Unlike DR Craig Emerson. Did Garnaut teach him to sing like an Australian idol outtaker on national television, or was that fuckwittery self taught? ANU must be sooooo proud.
Skuter
14 Jan 13 at 10:55 am
I still can’t get over the fact that a government, a Labor government, has actually passed a tax on “billionaire/millionaires/foreign capitalists/satan” that collects no revenue and has managed to get hammered for passing said tax anyway.
The mind boggles at how inept one must be to manage to take the heat for your actions and reap no actual revenue to use for pork. How the hell is that possible? Well that was rhetorical but what a farce.
Off they went on an ideological crusade totally consistent with their values which is fine in and of its own but yet after taking serious damage they leave the loot behind. Genius.
It is by far and away the stupidest actual outcome I can recall arising from ideological driven policy.
As to the reporting well /shrug. Reversion to ideological form is hardly news these days. Facts have long since disappeared from “journalists” outputs. If ever a word needed redefining it is journalist these days. So few report. It is merely paid blogging without consequence as they have a captive audience given to them by the decreasingly supposed legitimacy of the mastheads they write under.
Mark
14 Jan 13 at 10:57 am
What about the amounts that must be refunded to the miners under the MRRT? It’s a tax that actually costs the federal government money. I suppose swannie will just rip it out of GST revenue.
Dan
14 Jan 13 at 11:14 am
Why are poeple assuming Martin screwed up?
The SMH is a propaganda arm for the slime and the liars party, thats all.
JC
14 Jan 13 at 11:22 am
And they were all worried about Gina having editorial control on Fairfax……..maybe she could introduce the bullshit meter first and then they might still be around. Good luck
Pizzaskase
14 Jan 13 at 12:41 pm
While I would be (and have always been) surprised if the Miners pay anything or anything substantial….
There seems to me to be no substantial conflict between what Peter Martin wrote and what the Australian hack wrote.
The hack said that no payments would be made for the December quarter, Peter Martin said that rising prices that have peaked in the new year meant payments might be made in the latter two quarters.
Here Mr Martin underestimates the cupidity of the miners, but that is another matter. You would hardly expect them to pay super profits in the quarter before the super profits were generated.
If Tony Abbott promises to put in a mining tax which taxes, he will have my vote.
Grey
14 Jan 13 at 4:11 pm
aaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahaha.
aaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahaha
Mr Martin is shilling for woyne swanstein, and if you voted Lib i would eat my shoes.
Carpe Jugulum
14 Jan 13 at 4:26 pm
Given the Keynesian training we are told is received these days it should be a good thing that there are none. (Unless trained by Sinc or Kates of course).
Biota
14 Jan 13 at 4:41 pm
BTW,is the Cat the where the more feral elements of the Australian editorial section go for a bit of rough trade?
Just about the entire section of Cut and Paste this morning looked like it was lifted from here. Is that normal?
Grey
14 Jan 13 at 4:49 pm
Please don’t project your personal peccadillos onto others.
Carpe Jugulum
14 Jan 13 at 4:53 pm
Sorry, Carpe, you are right.
I meant to write Brough trade.
Grey
14 Jan 13 at 5:11 pm
Grey – you’re still projecting.
No one on this site cares about your personal proclivities. just don’t try to project onto others your weird life, that is your choice.
Carpe Jugulum
14 Jan 13 at 8:58 pm
Wasn’t this all about increasing superannuation or somethink.
kelly liddle
15 Jan 13 at 1:27 am
And cutting company tax? Another piece of bullshit from this government
Dan
15 Jan 13 at 9:49 am
One reported current events, the other made a huge leap of logic AND an optimistic forecast AND THEN went on to say that if everything continued as nicely, AND that continuation proved as beneficial as hoped THEN eventually the budget would be back on track, sometime in the future.
Evidently the second is impartial and the first a partisan hack.
wreckage
15 Jan 13 at 5:03 pm