CANBERRA, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Treasurer has urged the nation's businesses to invest profits back into the economy rather than delivering strong returns for shareholders.

In a speech to a Business Council of Australia (BCA) event on Monday, Josh Frydenberg said that 29 billion Australian dollars (19.4 billion U.S. dollars) has been returned to shareholders in the form of buybacks and dividends in the last year.

It represents a 140 percent increase from the average of 12 billion AUD (8.06 billion USD) returned over the previous four years.

While shareholders have benefited, Frydenberg said that productivity growth has slowed because of a drop-off in business investment.

"We cannot simply rely on high commodity prices to boost national income," he said.

He called for the states to help lift productivity growth from the current five-year average 1.1 percent back to the 30-year average of 1.5 percent.

If achieved that increase would result in annual incomes rising by 3,000 AUD (2015.4 USD) per person by 2030.

"If we are going to create new jobs and enable people to earn more for what they do, we need businesses to increase their capital expenditure and to adopt new technologies and business practices that effectively integrates capital with labour," Frydenberg said.

"With Australian corporates enjoying healthy balance sheets, record low borrowing costs and strong equity market conditions, the question is are corporates being aggressive enough in the pursuit of growth?

"For example share buybacks and capital returns are becoming increasingly prominent and the default option for corporates but is a buyback always the best option for the future growth of the company and therefore the economy?"

The Treasurer also ruled out the government again pursuing company tax cuts.

The governing Liberal National Party Coalition has previously tried to slash the tax rate for companies with an annual turnover exceeding 50 million AUD from 30 to 25 percent but abandoned the policy in August 2018, at which time Prime Minister Scott Morrison was the Treasurer. Enditem

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