Sam Koim

Secretary Ms. Taies Sansan affirmed that Internal Revenue Commission Commissioner General Sam Koim has confirmed there is no tax increase affecting public servants' salaries.

Secretary Sansan has clarified that the Internal Memo dated 9th January 2024, which was circulated internally in DPM and went viral on social media was information for internal consumption however ended up on social media.

Commissioner General for the Internal Revenue Commission, Sam Koim, made these remarks when addressing the National Press Club in Port Moresby recently.

A tax is a mandatory payment or charge collected by local, state, and national governments from individuals or businesses to cover the costs of general government services, goods, and activities.

Commissioner Koim said every taxpayer in the country has the legitimate right to question how their tax has been used by the Government.

He said any kina that is saved, is a kina earned.

IRC Commissioner General, Sam Koim said despite the COVID-19 pandemic where there was decline in employment and business activities, IRC managed to surpass its Gross Revenue Projects for 2021.

“Despite the subdued economic conditions, IRC collected K9.596 billion, exceeding the target by K375 million.”

Mr Koim said the exceptional perforce was a result of several factors.

IRC Commissioner General Sam Koim said, “We (IRC) are on target. There are only two times where IRC hit the K8 billion mark. One was in 2014, another one was in 2018. And those were the good times, but this is the most difficult time that we are hitting K8.1 billion and it would be probably more than that by the end of the week.”

Mr Koim said IRC meeting the 2021 target is due to effective collection strategies adopted by the Commission.

Commissioner Koim said, “When I took office two and a half years ago we had challenges at IRC. We had challenges of document management, data. And a lot of laborious manual work.”

He recalled encouraging IRC staff saying, “The first point of changing anything is to acknowledge that there is a problem. If we do not acknowledge that there exists a problem we will never change anything because that doesn’t cause you or give you the urgency to act.”

In its final development stage, IRC Commissioner General Sam Koim announced the development of the online platform on Friday 1 October 2021. Koim described the endeavor as part of the IRC's efforts to achieving a new technological horizon.

At the launch, Koim said IRC has been a passive tax collector for many years. He said the commission has a lot of ‘laborious manual work’ and thus with the launch of the user-friendly client platform, IRC will operate in a more efficient and cost-effective manner.

This was made know at a press conference held last Friday, 1^st October. IRC Commissioner General, Sam Koim announced that the online client platform is being development by NiuPay Limited.

The platform will offer a suite of IRC taxation services online and would enable individuals, organisations, for the first time to lodge returns, pay their taxes and other interactions previously only performed at an IRC office.

Mr Koim said the platform’s development is part of IRC's efforts to achieving a new technological horizon.

The notice was issued to taxpayers, real estate agents, conveyance lawyers, banks, land registry officials, and others involved in land transactions (both sellers and buyers) and the general public.

In a press conference on Friday 1 October, IRC Commissioner General Sam Koim announced the mandatory valuations, saying the IRC has uncovered many instances of gross evasion of stamp duties and undervaluation of properties, thus a requirement for mandatory evaluation.

With the interim order in place, IRC will not be splitting the GST and paying directly to Central Provincial Government, Gulf Provincial Government and Motu Koitabu Assembly.

The National Capital District Commission will be distributing instead.

NCD Governor Powes Parkop said NCDC will continue to honor its commitment with the Central Province and Motu Koita Assembly.

However, it will not make any payments to the Gulf Provincial Government.

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.