Australian Auditor-General Raises GST Questions

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

14 January 2002

The Australian Auditor-General, Pat Barrett, has raised questions about the federal government's treatment of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), saying that it does not meet government accounting standards.

In his report, Mr Barrett revealed that the coalition government had failed to recognise the GST as a Commonwealth tax, categorising it instead as a state impost. This had the effect of minimising the tax revenue and spending figures, whilst seemingly maximising the country's financial performance.

'The result for the 2000-2001 financial year in the consolidated statement of financial performance of $8.1 billion is overstated by $5.4 billion,' the report said, continuing: 'The net liabilities recognised as at 30 June 2001 in the consolidated statement of financial position of $28.4 billion are overstated by $8.5 billion.'

There have been angry calls from the opposition Labor party for Treasurer Peter Costello to return from his holidays and face accusations that he is the highest taxing and spending Treasurer that Australia has ever seen.

'This is not some technical matter,' explained opposition Treasury Spokesman, Bob McMullan. 'This is the Auditor-General conducting the official audit of the commonwealth's books and saying they don't meet the proper accounting standards.'

He then went on to accuse the Treasurer of trying to mislead the Australian public in the run-up to the Federal elections last year: 'It's clearly because the Treasurer wanted to misrepresent the situation during the election so the size of his tax grab wouldn't be exposed, and it wouldn't be clear to the Australian people that he was the highest taxing Treasurer in Australia's history.'

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