CANBERRA, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government has given the go-ahead to a controversial "backpacker tax" plan, under which foreign travelers who work temporarily in the country will have to pay 15 percent of tax on every dollar they earn.
The decision was made Monday after a year of political wrangle which forced the government to cut the planned tax rate of 32.5 percent by almost a half. The proposal had triggered discontent among tourism operators as well as farmers who feared that the new policy would make it unattractive to visit Australia.
Every year about 600,000 backpackers travel to Australia and many of them work temporarily as fruit pickers, yet they do not need to pay tax until their yearly income surpass 18,200 Australian dollars (about 13,500 U.S. dollars), according to a BBC report.h Up to 60 percent of the workforce picking fruit and doing
seasonal work in rural areas of Australia are made up of backpackers, which accounts for a significant part of the country's rural economy, Associate Professor Stuart Rosewarne of the University of Sydney told German news agency dpa.
"The prospect of paying a third of their pay in tax had already seen a drop in the number of backpackers coming to Australia to work in agriculture," said Rosewarne.
