Australia: Call for lower taxes to cope with climate change

Date: 20 Mar 2008

Australia's business group has called for reductions in company tax rates to enable firms to meet the cost of tackling climate change.

The call, which is contained within the pre-budget submission of the Australian Industry Group, was issued against a broad welcome for the country's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and intended use of an Emissions Trading Scheme to achieve reductions.

However, the group says that because of Australia's former advantages in cheap coal-fired electricity and its large percentage of agricultural businesses, its companies would be harder hit by emissions trading than many of their international competitors. In a more carbon-constrained world, it added, the greater internal and external distances involved for Australian firms delivering goods and services would become a real competitive barrier.

The AIG called for a reduction in rates of corporation tax from 30 percent to 25 percent to take place from the year when the emissions trading scheme is introduced.

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