Tax sink hole: Gas multinationals claim $50 billion more in relief credits in a year

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and WA
Premier Colin Barnett tour an LNG project
on Barrow Island last year. 

Multinational fossil fuel companies exploiting liquefied natural gas in Australia have built up a further $50 billion in tax credits over the past financial year, further delaying any meaningful royalty payments from the massive export sector.

A submission by the Australian Tax Office to Treasurer Scott Morrison's review of the petroleum resource rent tax, or PRRT, shows the LNG sector's combined tax credits, or "carry forward expenditure", grew to $238 billion in 2015-16, having climbed from $187 billion the previous year - or $138 million a day over 12 months.

Read Heath Aston’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Tax sink hole: Gas multinationals claim $50 billion more in relief credits in a year.”