PERTH (miningweekly.com) - The Australian Liberal opposition party has called on federal Treasurer Wayne Swan to stipulate how much if any revenue was raised through the mineral resource rent tax (MRRT), after reports circulated on Monday that the tax had failed to deliver revenue for its second term.

The tax failed to bring in any revenue during its first quarter, with Treasurer Swan ascribing the lack of revenue to low coal and iron-ore prices.

Local media reported on Monday that none of the mining majors, which included BHP Billiton, Xstrata and Rio Tinto, would be required to make any payments for the second quarter since the MRRT came into effect.

This was despite a recent increase in iron-ore prices.

The Liberal party has now called on Swan to stop the secrecy surrounding the MRRT, adding that the Treasurer should clarify how much or how little the MRRT had raised since its inception in July last year.

“The coalition has always questioned the credibility of Swan's mining tax revenue estimates. For two years before the MRRT came into effect, when we raised serious doubts about his mining tax revenue estimates, Swan steadfastly refused to provide any information about the commodity price and production volume assumptions he used,” the coalition said on Monday.

The opposition party estimated that the Australian Taxation Office had spent some A$50-million on MRRT administration so far and added that the mining industry had spent millions on MRRT compliance to prove they didn't have to pay it.

“There is now nowhere left for Swan to hide. The mining tax he and the Prime Minister designed with the three biggest miners is a failure on all fronts. It is more complex, more inefficient, more costly to administer and more costly to comply with than the previous arrangements,” the political party stated.

The coalition further added that the MRRT had provided a direct incentive to state governments to increase royalties on iron-ore or coal, but did not raise any revenue from the three biggest miners who helped design it.

“Labour should cut its losses and scrap its disastrous mining tax,” the coalition said.