Carbon tax repeal in Australia to help in coal supplies to India

MELBOURNE: The move of Australian Parliament to repeal the carbon tax in the country is likely to help coal exporting companies in delivering cost effective and high quality fuel to Indian markets, according to Adani Mining, a wholly owned subsidiary of India's Adani Group.

The repeal of the carbon tax in Australia on Thursday will lower costs for Indian firms such as Adani and GVK exporting from the country, Adani Mining spokesperson told PTI here today.

"It reflects the Australian government's strong commitment to supporting export opportunities in the resources sector, and further underlines the cost-effectiveness of the Carmichael mine", the company said.

It further noted the positive impact this would have on the ability of the company to deliver cost-effective and high quality coal to the Indian market in the years ahead.

Adani said that with help from the Australian government and our supply chain, the company was committed to help drive lower costs for operations here, helping deliver the planned mega project and energy security in India.

The company further referred to a prominent Melbourne- based independent think tank Grattan Institute, which said that the design of the now-repealed tax impacted small and medium-size businesses, as they lacked the scale to attract compensation for higher electricity costs that larger businesses were able to accrue under the tax.

Institute's Energy Programme Director Tony Wood said, "It could easily have been 10, 15 per cent of their business input - and that's not trivial by any means and I'm sure they from a cost perspective will be glad to see the end of it. Australia became the first country in the world to abolish a price on carbon after the Parliament passed the government's repeal bills by 39 votes to 32."