Australia to set carbon price of A$23 per tonne

Australia is set to slap a carbon tax of A$23 a tonne ($24.60) on its major emitters, newspapers said on Thursday, but it has halved the number of companies liable for the tax in a bid to overcome hostility to the policy. The ruling Labour party is due on Sunday to announce its third attempt in as many years to make polluters pay for their carbon emissions with a policy which recent polls show is opposed by 60 percent of voters and chunks of industry.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard declined to confirm the newspaper reports, but a tax of A$23 a tonne would be roughly in line with market expectations and on a par with the market-based price of emissions in Europe. "You will need to wait till Sunday. I'm not going to play any games about the carbon price. You will see the details on Sunday," she told Sky TV in an interview.
Gillard confirmed the number of companies liable for the tax would be 500, half the number that would have had to pay under the previous carbon-reduction plan rejected by parliament in 2009. But she rejected suggestions that she was substantially watering down the original scheme. "This is a scheme where we have made coverage choices, but it's focused on our biggest polluters, the companies causing the biggest pollution, for our nation, in our economy."
The government has previously said Australia's top 50 polluting companies account for around two thirds of emissions to be covered by the carbon tax. Those companies include electricity generators such as International Power , majority owned by GDF Suez, TRUenergy, owned by Hong Kong's CLP Holdings , Australia's largest steelmakers BlueScope and OneSteel Ltd as well as global resource companies such as Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Woodside Petroleum .
But big business is set to receive compensation. Export exposed companies will receive up to 90 percent of free carbon permits, while steel makers will receive up to 95 percent of free permits, with reports saying they could be shielded from the carbon tax for the first few years.