Coal boosts Queensland government revenue
Published by Jonathan Rowland,
Editor
World Coal,
The spike in coal prices has delivered an AU$1 billion windfall to Queensland, the state government said in its Mid-year Fiscal and Economic Review, helping the state to its largest net operating surplus since 2005-06.
Coal royalties – which were expected to reach AUS$1.5 billion – are now forecast to contribute almost AUS$3 billion over the current financial year, which runs to June 2017.
Some of this will now be spent in an AUS$200 million jobs and regional growth package – a move that was welcomed by Queensland Resources Council (QRC) CEO Ian Macfarlane, who called the state’s regional communities the “backbone of resource operations.”
“Today’s decision is a welcome reminder that when the natural resources sector is doing well, the entire Queensland economy benefits,” Macfarlane said in a statement. “No one is saying that coal prices will stay this high forever, but Queensland should make have while the resource sun is shining so brightly.
Queensland Treasury figures forecast a tailing off of coal revenues from AUS$3 billion in the current financial year to around AUS$2 billion in the years to 2019-20. And Queensland Treasurer Curtis Pitt made sure to dampen expectations of a new mining boom.
“When announcing the revision of the 2015-16 surplus, I said we would not be accepting higher resource royalties as the ‘new normal’,” Pitt said. Rather the government’s plan was to transition to a “post-mining boom economy”.
Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/coal/13122016/coal-boosts-queensland-government-revenue/
You might also like
Underground drift connected Budryk with Knurów
The underground ventilation link between the Budryk mine and the Knurów Section has been completed. The strategic investment will keep the Budryk mine operating until 2077.