Turnbull Introduces A$100 Million Tax Plan to Boost Mining
Turnbull Introduces A$100 Million Tax Plan to Boost Mining
(Bloomberg) -- Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has unveiled a A$100 million ($80 million) tax incentive to encourage investment in junior mining exploration companies across Western Australia, a state that bore the brunt of the nation’s resources slowdown.
The Australian government is enacting a “junior mineral exploration tax credit scheme” to boost productivity in the state’s mining sector, Turnbull said at a Liberal Party state conference in Perth on Saturday.
“It will allow junior exploration companies to generate tax credits and immediately distribute them to investors,” Turnbull said. “It will make investing in these companies much more attractive, and it will help them raise new capital for greenfield exploration.”
Western Australia, whose Pilbara region is the world’s biggest supplier of iron ore, saw its economy prosper amid China’s voracious demand for resources during the mining boom. It has also suffered the worst effects of the mining bust after Chinese hunger for the state’s natural resources waned as growth moderated in the world’s second-largest economy.
The latest tax plan will run over the next four years, Turnbull said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ruth Liew in Sydney at rliew6@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stanley James at sjames8@bloomberg.net, John McCluskey, Naoto Hosoda