PETROLEUM RESOURCE RENT TAX AND THE NEW FRONTIERS

Abstract

The Resource Rent Tax in (RRT) Australia evolved in the late 1970s in a climate of scarcity of world oil and perception of rising oil prices for the next decade and beyond. In the 1990s, where countries are fiercely competing for export markets, many of the fundamental assumptions which underscored the evolution of the tax in Australia are no longer appropriate. The petroleum industry has consistently tendered reasons for the inappropriateness of the tax in certain circumstances. It is essential for Government to reconsider fundamental assumptions underlying the RRT if Australian producers are to remain competitive exporters of oil and gas.