The Association of Superannuation Funds said today that less than one percent on the superannuation account balances of an average worker would be affected, contrary to the mining sector's claim that the resources super profits tax could potentially hurt super returns.

Fund chief executive Pauline Vamos said that the proposed tax would only have a negligible impact on super fund returns, as she revealed that the industry immediately incurred three to six percent loss in mining stocks following the announcement of the government, which is only "an impact of 0.3 to 0.6 per cent on a superannuation portfolio in the short term."

On the contrary, Ms Vamos said that measures to be funded by the proposed tax are poised to benefit superannuation balances by increasing super fund guarantee from nine percent to 12 percent and reducing corporate tax from 30 percent to 28 percent.

She said that a much lower corporate tax should attract more overseas investment while on the other hand, a higher superannuation guarantee should lead to more economic benefits "because in the long term that will mean less money coming out of the public purse to pay pensions."

For now, it is important that the government and the mining sector should constructively engage to arrive at a compromise on the proposed tax as Ms Vamos said that the negotiation details "between the Government and the mining sector is being worked out and that is what we have to wait for."

She added that as far as the superannuation industry is concerned, it is very important that the superannuation guarantee would be increased, stressing that "it is important for the Australian consumer economy that our people in retirement live as comfortably as they can, that we increase the SG (superannuation guarantee),"

Ms Vamos said that all their research pointed to the fact that the average Australian looks for an increase in SG and "they want comfort in retirement and those Government announcements go a long way towards that and this is the big picture to us."