TWO of Northern Tasmania's largest employers will be slapped with a final carbon tax bill of $18 million.
Latest figures from the Clean Energy Regulator show Rio Tinto's Bell Bay operations have been charged more than $7 million for carbon pollution.
Manganese alloy smelter Temco has been slugged with a bill of more than $10 million.
The federal government repealed the carbon tax in July, but liable businesses were still required to report their emissions at the end of last month for the 2013-14 year.
Bass Liberal MHR Andrew Nikolic said the figures highlighted the impact that the carbon tax had on Tasmanian households and businesses.
"Sixteen of the top 20 companies forced to pay the carbon tax were electricity suppliers, meaning that these costs were forced on to households and small businesses," Mr Nikolic said.
"Since the government repealed the carbon tax, power bills in Tasmania are up to 9.4 per cent lower than they would have been with the carbon tax.
"There are likely to be further flow-on benefits of lower electricity prices on the cost of other goods and services over the next quarter."
Tasmanian Labor Senator Lisa Singh said the scrapping of the tax was estimated to have cost Hydro Tasmania $70 million and contributed to job losses of 100 positions.
"There is little basis for the government's estimation that power bills will go down, but there is evidence that carbon emissions have gone up since the legislation was repealed," Senator Singh said.
The figures come as the Clean Energy Council and Aluminium Council band together to call on the government and opposition to resolve the "Renewable Energy Target crisis".
In a joint statement, the groups said the government needed to provide certainty to the sector by providing "a full RET exemption for aluminium smelting while still providing a strong target that supports the future of renewable energy in Australia".
"The future of two of Australia's most important industries is at stake," the statement said.
Bell Bay Aluminium general manager Ray Mostogl said on Saturday that the RET was costing Bell Bay Aluminium $10 million a year.
Due to less power consumption, the government wants to adjust the RET to a "real 20 per cent", in effect slashing it from 41,000 gigawatt hours to about 27,000 gigawatt hours.
Senator Singh said Labor had attempted to work with the government to ensure certainty but the refusal to move from its position had "halted the possibility of further work in this area".
Source: The Examiner, Launceston
