The Internal Revenue Commission (IRC), Investment Promotion Authority (IPA) and the Financial Analysis and Supervision Unit (FASU) have launched a document that outlines actions to be taken by responsible agencies to meet standards on tax transparency.
The document referred to as the Exchange of Information on Request Country Action Plan 2019-2024 or EOIR_CAP was launched yesterday to address recommendations from the Global Forum's peer review.
PNG joined the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for tax purposes in 2015. The EOIR_CAP began work in 2019, however, due to the pandemic delayed the work slightly.
“IPA undertook a significant exercise to review the laws under its jurisdiction purposely to address PNG’s international obligations on AML/CTF Reforms and to keep up to par with new developments of technology in the area of business registry systems. The amendments include Companies (Amendment) Act 2022, Business Groups Incorporation (Amendment) Act 2022, Associations Incorporation Act 2023 and Investment Promotion Authority (Amendment) Act 2023,” said IPA Managing Director Clarence Hoot.
He shared that there are other action items in the EOIR Action Plan, and assured that IPA will work closely with IRC and FASU to support the work.
“The technical working staff and the level of professionalism that has been displayed between the three agencies, not only extends to this occasion but with the mutual evaluation as well. Those relationships that they have fostered have been demonstrated in this outcome. It’s also important to note that there is a lot of work that needs to be done and yes you have FASU’s commitment,” added Acting Director for FASU, Wilson Onea.
IRC Commissioner General, Sam Koim shared that participation in international taxation entails sharing legal and beneficial ownership information through financial data analysis, and fairly distributing taxing rights among states.
“IRC contributes to suppressing illicit financial flows and eliminating tax evasion, enabling enforcement of PNG’s outstanding tax obligations abroad,” said Koim.