Internal Revenue Commission

Mineral Resources Development Company (MRDC) managing director, Augustine Mano, represented PRK to present the cheque to IRC.

“We are here representing Petroleum Resources Kutubu were they represent 6.75 percent which is Kutubu and one percent of PNG LNG. So we’ve had a dispute with IRC since 2011 and in 2019, we resolved that and agreed on payments schedule.

IRC Commissioner General, Sam Koim, says the current tax on consultants is being abused by companies.

Koim said their concern is the manipulation of this tax arrangement by companies who engage people as consultants, but, who fill in line positions or jobs.

IRC Commissioner General Sam Koim says the organization has profiled a number of cases and will begin prosecutions very soon.

Speaking at the launching of the IRC’s 2021 Work Plan, Commissioner General, Sam Koim, said the IRC will begin criminal prosecutions for persons and organizations involved in tax offences.

Koim said the only way to deter tax offenders is to imprison perpetrators.

“If you effectively put people behind bars that’s the time that people will change. That the time tax fraudsters will change,” said Koim.

IRC Commissioner General, Sam Koim, says in the current environment they will be able to meet or surpass that target.

 “The budget for this year the projections is about K8.1 billion for this year, that’s the money we will be transferring to the WPA. But our collections should be around K9 billion because we also collect GST and transfer 60% back to the Provinces and then GST Refunds.

“If everything works well, we are very optimistic that we will meet the target or even exceed it. That depends on COVID-19 and other unforeseen circumstances,” said Koim.

Mr Koim made this bold statement after announcing the arrest of one officer and the dismissal of another for separate misconducts.  

The terminated officer worked at IRC for 10 years, moving up the ranks to be a manager at the Debt Recovery Division (DLED). He used his position to print out a consolidated statement of accounts for particular taxpayer in 2019 which was subsequently used to extort money from that taxpayer. He was dismissed from IRC.

In a statement released on March 31st, the Commissioner General, Sam Koim, said “in the face of this crisis, we are immediately responding to keep the taxpaying community’s productive capacity intact as much as possible. Figuratively speaking, we have to keep the cows alive so that they continue to produce the milk after this crisis”.

“Although we as a country have so far been saved from this virus, we are inescapably vulnerable to the impact it will have on our economy.  We are not oblivious to that hence these measures to supplement the Government’s overall stimulus package.

Koim said individuals who run a company and incur a tax bill will still be liable even if they deregister the company.

The warning comes after change in tax laws, according to Koim.

“There’s a change of law to go after individuals, this is another message I would like the public to know,” he stated.

“People will think that I can register a company and once the IRC catches up with me, I can leave that company and go and register a new company.

IRC made this known following the announcement of a successful 2018 tax collection target.

The first major change that taxpayers should expect is the widening of the tax-free threshold and first-tier threshold for marginal income tax for individuals.

The Internal Revenue Commission has clarified that the legislative change reduces income tax burden on every individual in Papua New Guinea.

Though the newspaper article stated that 28 people were removed over their alleged involvement in a loan racket, IRC corrected that only 23 of their staff were disciplined and terminated.

Commissioner of Tax, Dr Alois Daton, says the IRC is PNG’s largest revenue collector hence they expect their staff to be honest and conduct themselves professionally at all times.

“IRC we are very strict about how people operate in this organisation,” said Dr Daton.

K7.9 billion was the 2018 budget target for the Internal Revenue Commission, or IRC.  

The Commissioner of Tax, Dr Alois Daton, said the IRC successfully collected and transferred K8 billion to the Waigani Public Account last year.

The total figure is 8.4 percent higher than government projections at the time of budget 2018, and 5.2 percent higher than government’s revised projections in the Mid-Year Economic Fiscal Outlook.

“In terms of corporate income tax, we brought in K1.7 billion and that is 8 percent above 2017 collections,” outlined Dr Daton.