THE country needs a system that will relieve corporate and personal income tax from being heavily taxed, Tax Review Committee chairman Sir Nagora Bogan says.
Sir Nagora (pictured) said “capital gains tax” was missing from the equation resulting in corporate and personal income tax carrying the “big weight” under Papua New Guinea’s current tax regime. A capital gain is the difference between current and future selling prices of assets, shares in mining and petroleum tenements or intangible assets among other gains. Sir Nagora said: “In the current environment if we do reduce taxes in both corporate and personal, then we’ll leave a big hole. “If you bring capital gains tax in, that’s going to give room for possible cuts in other areas. Asian Development Bank’s PNG country economist Aaron Batten said 80 per cent of the government’s revenue was from corporate and personal income tax including the goods and services taxes (GST). Tax revenue this year is estimated at K11.2 billion, an increase of K1.5 billion or 15 per cent from last year’s revised estimate of K9.7 billion. Batten said although all focus in PNG was on the mineral revenue, the government needed to focus on the top three items (corporate, personal income taxes, GST). In 2006-07, the country was getting K200 billion-K300 billion receipts from all mining and oil operations throughout Papua New Guinea. In the last few years, aging mines and oil fields have scaled down whilst LNG (liquefied natural gas) would compensate for loss revenues. “They (resource operations) scaled down significantly in the last few years and they will jump back up next year but their levels will be much lower than they once were five years ago. “Total revenue in the next three years is expected to stay flat,” Batten said. Meanwhile, the Tax Review Committee have released issues papers to find out whether Papua New Guinea should consider introducing a system that would relieve pressure on corporate and individual income tax. PNGFacts/The Natioanl Comments are closed.
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