Five million households and one million businesses will receive up to $500 relief on their power bills under a $1.5 billion package in Tuesday’s federal budget.
Pensioners, small businesses and people on government payments will have their electricity subsidised under the measure.
But the size of the assistance will depend on where you live, as the Albanese Government has had to negotiate eight different energy agreements with state and territory governments.
“More than 5.5 million households will get some assistance with their electricity bills, and around a million small businesses will be eligible as well, to take some of the edge off what is the key drivers of these cost of living pressures,” Treasurer Jim Chalmers said in an interview with the ABC.
“People will be getting several hundred dollars if they’re on pensions and payments, or a small business, but depending on where you live, depending on what the price pressures are, depending on how much the states and territories are prepared to kick in, because this is a co-investment with them.”
Mr Chalmers used the interview to also confirm a $2.4 billion increase in Petroleum Resource Rent Tax paid by oil and gas companies on their offshore liquefied natural gas projects over the next four years.
The changes to the PRRT follow months of negotiation with the sector and will kick in from July 1.
Rather than allowing companies to fully deduct their project costs against income, as is the case now, deductions will be capped at 90 per cent.
“Australians will get a fairer return on their resources sooner and what this change means is about $2.4 billion in the forward estimates which the gas companies wouldn’t be paying, the offshore LNG projects wouldn’t be paying, were it not for this change,” the Treasurer told the ABC.
“This means more tax sooner from these projects. And it means that it can help fund our cost of living package and other priorities in the budget.”
PRRT, which was first introduced in the 1980s, generates on average about $2 billion a year and has been long criticised for providing insufficient return to Australia.
More to come.