Jiwaka-based taxpayers no longer need to travel all the way to Mt Hagen to comply with their tax obligations.
The Internal Revenue Commission (IRC) now has an office at the Jiwaka provincial headquarters at Kurumul.
The office was officially opened on January 11th by Jiwaka Governor, Dr. William Tongamp, and Commissioner General of IRC, Sam Koim.
The office was allocated by the Jiwaka Provincial Government as part of its objective to empower and benefit from revenues generated by IRC in the province.
IRC assigned three officers to Jiwaka and also delivered a new Toyota Land Cruiser to support the work in Jiwaka.
In his address, the Commissioner General, Koim, said: “We are proud that IRC is the first statutory authority to have a branch in Jiwaka and to be part of this pioneering work in this new province.”
He added that the IRC branch was a commitment he made in June last year.
“We are bringing our services closer to where the taxpayers are, consistent with our aim of reducing the compliance burden on taxpayers. The extra fuel, bus fare and time taxpayers spend to travel all the way to Hagen will now be a thing of the past.”
All Jiwaka-based taxpayers will now pay their taxes and lodge their returns through the Jiwaka office. The IRC officers will also be available for any tax related queries.
An elated Dr Tongamp thanked the Commissioner General and his team for setting up office in Jiwaka.
“Jiwaka started from scratch with no internal revenue stream and we are progressing slowly,” he stated.
The pioneering Governor acknowledged the K1.2 million in GST distribution by IRC last year and expressed his hope to increase that with the setup of the office in his province.
IRC returns 60 percent of GST collected in each province on a monthly basis.
