FMG chief executive officer Nev Power said the tax was ill-conceived.

“The fact it has not collected any revenue is a good thing,” Power told reporters on a teleconference yesterday.

FMG chief financial officer Stephen Pearce said the company paid around $US500 million ($A482.9 million) in the December half, which had increased to $800 million by the end of January.

Expected tax for the full financial year would be around $1 billion.

“None of which will be MRRT,” he said.

Pearce said that based on forecasts for iron ore prices, he couldn’t see FMG having to pay MRRT over the next few years.

Despite avoiding the MRRT, Power defended the company tax contributions.

“We will pay in excess of $1 billion,” he said.

“So despite what some of our politicians might have you believe, we are paying our fair share.”

Meanwhile, BHP Billiton said it had paid a $A77 million instalment of MRRT, more than half of the $126 million collected by the government during the December half.

But outgoing CEO Marius Kloppers said it was too early to measure the impacts of the MRRT because it was counter cyclical.

“It’s probably not a call I’m brave enough to make,” he told media yesterday.

“There’s no doubt that the MRRT will result over time in us paying more tax and royalties.”

Like Power, BHP chairman Jac Nasser defended the amount of tax his company paid.

Of the $US11 billion BHP paid in global taxes last year, $9 billion was in Australia.

“That’s an awful amount of money,” Nasser said.

But unlike FMG, BHP remained diplomatic on the MRRT – a tax it famously helped negotiate with Rio Tinto and Xstrata.

“We’re more concerned about where policies are heading,” Nasser said.

“We’re disinterested in the politics as a company.”