Greens: dump mining fuel subsidy

The Greens want to end cheap fuel for the mining industry to put an extra $13 billion a year into federal revenues.

Acting Greens leader Adam Bandt says the plan will stop the need for savage budget cuts.

He says costings obtained by the Greens from the Parliamentary Budget Office show that while ordinary motorists pay excise of 38 cents a litre of fuel, the mining industry pays only six cents a litre.

Increasing the miners' fuel excise would generate $13 billion a year in revenue and give the government a popular way to right the budget without drastic measures such as changing pension entitlements and a rumoured $6 Medicare surcharge for GP visits, Mr Bandt said.

"If you ask most people, 'Do you think that Gina Rinehart and her companies should pay the same tax on fuel that you do every time you go to the bowser?', most people would say yes," he told reporters in Melbourne on Tuesday.

"And if you ask people if they think the likes of Gina Rinehart should be asked to pay a little bit more instead of attacking pensions or paying more to see the doctor, most people would say yes a well."