The mining sector has dismissed as 'tinkering at the margins' a likely government concession on the resources super profits tax.
While the government will not negotiate on the 40 per cent tax on so-called "super profits", it appears the cut-in rate of a super profit could be lifted from six per cent to 12 per cent on new mines.
That's not good enough for the Mineral Councils of Australia, which has been leading the campaign against the proposed tax.
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"It's tinkering at the margins, this is a piecemeal approach to a policy on the run," chief executive Mitch Hooke told ABC Radio on Thursday.
The top rate that a mining company would pay under Labor's proposed resource super profits tax is 56.8 per cent, Treasury boss Ken Henry has told a Senate hearing.
Dr Henry, who led a review of the nation's tax system which included the recommendation for a resources rent tax, said the rate would be a combination of the 40 per cent super profits tax and the company tax rate which was being cut to 28 per cent from 30 per cent.
"56.8 per cent is a maximum rate," he told an estimates hearing on Thursday.
"Obviously a company that is not actually earning any super profit, then the tax rate is 28 per cent.
If a company's rate of return was "infinitely large" it would pay 56.8 per cent.
"Most taxpayers obviously don't have an infinite rates of return, so no tax payer we would suspect would actually pay the 56.8."
