Tax Glitch

Prime Minister James Marape in a media statement released today has reassured public servants throughout the country that after the upcoming pay run, everything will return to normal.

He made this announcement following a meeting with suspended Finance Secretary Sam Penias, suspended Treasury Secretary Andrew Oaeke, and suspended Personnel Management Secretary Taies Sansan.

The looting and damages of businesses was carried out by the public, whilst taking advantage of the stand down by the PNG disciplined forces wanting answers from the government over their salary discrepancies.

IPA managing director, Clarence Hoot and the Board were concerned about the incident saying such actions painted a bad picture on the IPA’s effort to promote PNG as a preferred investment destination.

Gerehu residents in possession of stolen properties were given 24 hours as of Saturday 13^th January, to return all stolen items voluntarily.

The recovery effort by the police and PNG Defence Force started, Gerehu residents given the day to return all items believed to be looted from the Brian Bell warehouse a Gerehu stage 6 on Wednesday.

Units from the Royal PNG Constabulary and the PNG Defence Force responded to reports of a gathering crowd at Two-Mile at around 9am.

Backup was called when it was obvious that the crowd size was too big; over 200 men, women and children were loitering around the area.

Opportunists took advantage of a gathering of the police personnel at Unagi Oval, seeking to address discrepancies in their salaries.

While waiting for their concerns to be addressed by relevant authorities, opportunists seized the moment leading to widespread looting and burning down of shops in the city.

Two of the well-known family shops that were burnt include Stop N Shop and Papindo. Brian Bell group also lost their warehouse at Gerehu  Stage 6.

For over 60 years, Brian Bell Group has thrived in Papua New Guinea. With 16 retails stores, 6 trade centres, a residential development and over 1,300 team members. The Group is the largest business of its kind with a mission and a scale to improve the lives for Papua New Guineans.

Yesterday, only 10 days into the new year, 2024, our nation’s capital faced chaos that saw hundreds of millions of kina worth of store goods ransacked from countless stores, buildings burnt, private property destroyed, multiple injuries and unconfirmed deaths.

These includes Stop & Shop, as well as City Pharmacy and Hardware Haus shops across the country.

CPL PNG chief executive officer, Navin Raju expressing the gravity of the situation via social media stated: "It has been an absolutely distressing and devastating day experienced by CPL Group and Stop and Shop supermarkets in Port Moresby. Other businesses have suffered the same fate, resulting in significant losses for all the involved business houses."

Office buildings have been closed as staff were told to remain at home, or were turned back by police.

With the looting and ransacking that happened in the nation’s capital yesterday, opportunists are hoping to have a go at shops and business houses today.

Police had to disperse groups at Chinatown, Top Town and Eriku this morning. Residents heard gunshots as early as 7am.

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.