Senators want repeal of transparency laws

Private companies may soon be able hide their taxation details from public scrutiny again if a federal government-led Senate inquiry has its way.

But Labor and the Greens believe if a bill changing legislation is passed it will erode public confidence in the tax system.

Government senators released a report recommending support for the bill that repeals the former Labor government laws that requires private companies with revenue above $100 million to publish their revenue, taxable income and tax paid.

"The proposed changes will restore the long-held general principle of fundamental rights of taxpayers' privacy, including for Australian-owned private companies," inquiry chair and Liberal senator Sean Edwards says in the report.

Maintaining the status quo and disclosing market sensitive information could place a company at a competitive disadvantage, he says.

These companies are also typically owned by families, and without the proposed exemption, their privacy and in some cases their "personal security may be jeopardised", he says in the report released on Monday.

Liberal frontbencher Josh Frydenberg has previously gone further, saying many business owners fear the publication could increase the risk of them being kidnapped and held for ransom.

But in a dissenting report, Labor and the Greens reject these "ridiculous arguments", saying the government is evidently doing the bidding of a tiny number of very wealthy individuals.

"The arguments being wielded clumsily in defence of this bill are absurd, illogical and often lacking any evidence," it says.

Much if the information that is trying to be concealed is already a matter of public record and its availability will not be affected by the introduction of this bill.

"Changing existing legislation will not prevent access to personal and financial information, but it will simply make it more difficult to access, identify and scrutinise," Labor says.