ENUS: Senator, good evening to you.
WONG: Good evening, good to be with you.
ENUS: Your projected surplus is shrinking again, as were told, mainly due to tax revenue forecast to go down massively. Does this amount to a tip of the iceberg situation, given how demand in China is slowing?
WONG: Theres no doubt the global economy has softened since the Budget. Thats why weve seen the International Monetary Fund downgrade its forecasts for global growth and weve had to respond to that. Weve delivered a responsible budget update that responds to the fact that weve seen a very substantial writedown in revenue that is, the Government getting less tax as a result of where the global economy is but continues to demonstrate the return to surplus in 2012-13 and in the years beyond by making some difficult but important decisions to take savings.
ENUS: We havent seen the actual receipts from the mining tax, but youre projecting a wafer thin surplus of $1.1 billion. Does that return to surplus hinge on how bad the decrease in mining tax and company tax revenue is going to be?
WONG: The figures weve released do factor in less revenue from the mining tax and from company tax more generally. Its unsurprising that you would see less money coming into Government from the mining tax, given whats happened to commodity prices. As you know theyve dropped significantly since Budget. Whilst theyve come back a bit, they certainly did drop very significantly a couple of months ago. So obviously thats having an effect across a number of revenue heads, including the mining tax. But that is factored into the Budget.
ENUS: Just some of the measures you announced today, Senator. Moving large companies, for instance, into a monthly payment system for tax will bring in another $8 billion. But wont that kind of impost ultimately be passed onto consumers?
WONG: Remember that is not an increase in tax for big companies or companies generally. Its a change in the way that they pay tax. And were giving some significant notice to companies of that. The first change wont start for about 14 months. So well obviously have a discussion with companies and the business community about implementing that change.
ENUS: Senator, we thank you for your time. Thanks for speaking to us today.
WONG: Thank you.
ENDS