Sasindran Muthuvel

Governor Sasindran Muthuvel is appealing to the Government to retain the program, especially for those agriculture and disaster prone provinces.

This is because the tax credit fund from the agriculture sector is very nominal, with around K10 million per annum, which is only 0.5 percent of the revenue compared to 5 percent to 10 percent in oil and gas and mining sectors.

TCS provides an avenue to address damages during flood and disaster to fix roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

The Act that was passed in 2009 and amended in 2012 to ban the 20t per bottle beer and 3t per cigarette has caused the provinces to lose over K2m internal revenue annually for past five years.

Muthuvel said this will empower the provincial governments to generate revenue and offload some burden of funding dependency on National Government.

Muthuvel made this call after Loop PNG ran a story which highlighted questions on his citizenship status in an election petition.

“It was unfortunate to see Loop PNG attempt to tarnish my good name by publishing and heavily promoting a story designed to raise doubts about my citizenship.

“Such attempts to undermine the legitimacy of West New Britain’s election results do not serve the people of Papua New Guinea,” Muthuvel posted the statement on his facebook page.

He is to appear in court, on a date that is yet to be set, to give evidence on the citizenship status of West New Britain Governor Sasindran Muthuvel.

Petitioner in the case, Chris Lagisa, requested for Kantha to be in court to verify the Governor’s citizenship status.

Lagisa’s lawyer asked the court to have him summoned to verify if Muthuvel has a dual citizenship.

He alleges that Mutuvel is not qualified, competent and did not lawfully nominate as a candidate due to his citizenship status.

Governor Sasindran Muthuvel says the sporting facilities for the PNG Games will be a lasting legacy for the people of West New Britain.

The 7^th PNG Games is among a number of other sporting events taking place in November and the ultimate aim, which is to see the games facilities completed on time, is soon to be achieved.

“It’s a major concern throughout the country with the recent Mendi incident, the burning down of Kiriwina terminal saga amidst countless cases across the nation that has spiralled out of proportion due to deteriorating Law and Order in our beautiful country,” said Muthuvel.

He said investors’ are losing confidence in PNG because of Law and Order issues while businesses are left with no choice but to spend huge sums of money, hiring private securities for their operations.

“This increases the operating costs and lessens the profit margin for individual businesses.”

Muthuvel made this call, after still waiting on the government to release funds which were earmarked for projects in West New Britain.

“The bureaucratic process is a long, stringent and overwhelming procedure which will test your patience.

“It needs constant persistence, persuasion and a lot of energy, with as much support from our Provincial Administration to approve at least one major project.”

This is an OPIC proposed project to upgrade the 1250km oil Palm roads, out of which 750 km is in Kimbe, while the other 500km is in Oro and Milne Bay Province.

“It will be beneficial to the National Government, to fix these roads that will in turn provide increased tax revenue from NBPOL as a result of shorter pick up intervals, that will boost remarkable increased production,” he said.

He added that proper road conditions will also encourage small holder growers to collectively bring their own fruits to the mills, which is an added bonus to production time and rate.

Upon receiving the titles from the Lands Minister, West New Britain Governor, Sasindran Muthuvel, admitted that it has been a challenge in acquiring land titles for public institutions.  

As part of Minister Tkatchenko’s priority to make land for public or institutional purposes safe, he has signed off on four land titles securing the land portion in which a brand new Caritas Girls Technical School is being built in West New Britain Province

He said during these tough economic times which is predicted to last for at least the next two to three years, the Government must give assurance to support at least 1 or 2 impact projects for all 22 Provinces as compensation for the slash in PSIP and DSIP.

“I appeal to the National Government to have mercy on the Provinces and equalize the distribution of funding in the name of development and to give serious consideration to those that contribute immensely to the economy and are prone to disaster,” he stressed.