BHP Billiton chief executive Marius Kloppers criticized the Federal Government for accusing Australia's mining industry on not paying its full share of tax.

According to an e-mail statement received by BusinessDay, Mr. Kloppers told its workers that "the Australian resource industry and BHP Billiton pays its full and fair share of taxes."

He said that the claims of the government regarding the tax-paying status of the resource industry is "simply not true" and explained that the industry was already the highest tax paying sector in the Australian economy.

"Over the last nine years the resources industry has paid an average tax rate of 43 per cent compared to banks and retailers paying an average of 30 per cent," Mr. Kloppers said.

The federal government proposed for a 40 per cent resource rent tax, which may effectively go up to 55 per cent for the industry.

BHP is ranked as the highest corporate tax payer, paying more than $6 billion, where two-thirds went to the Tax Office and another one-third to the state governments.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said over the weekend that government only received $9 billion on tax from the industry when mining companies profits were at $80 billion a year.

Mr. Kloppers said the Rudd government excluded mentioning petroleum taxes that miners also pay and focused only the royalties.

He addressed his workers that the government's move for a resource super-profit tax (RSPT) will be an additional payment aside from the "total tax we pay."

He said that the RSPT of the federal government will result in loss in foreign investments and less wealth to the State.

The proposed RSPT also threatens the Australia's reputation as a stable investment destination.