The Government will phase down the land transport facilities borrowings tax offset scheme, the Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer, Senator Helen Coonan, announced today.
Under the phasing down of the scheme, no new projects will be approved. However, projects that currently receive assistance, or are subject to ongoing approval processes, will not be affected by this decision. The measure will have effect from the date of Royal Assent of the amending legislation.
To date there has been a limited take up of the land transport borrowing facilities tax offset scheme and significant additional land transport funding has been provided as a more effective way of providing assistance.
The Government will increase its assistance to land transport through its AusLink initiative. The Government has announced in this Budget that it will provide an additional $630 million over five years to land transport. This is in addition to the $810 million funding over three years, redirected from the Fuel Sales Grants Scheme, allocated to AusLink announced on 22 January 2004 (media release APM4/2004 of the Minister for Transport and Regional Services).