Treasurer Charles Abel

Resource projects can address economic issues: Abel

Treasurer Charles Abel says this is the reason why the Government is intent on delivering big resource projects.

Speaking at the 2018 Final Budget Outcome briefing on Monday, Abel said the Government is working to address PNG’s foreign exchange issue through loans, like the US$500 million sovereign bond, and also by looking at resource projects like the Papua-LNG project.

Firms evade tax: Treasurer

Treasurer Charles Abel revealed that this problem seemed to be cropping up in a particular industry, hence the engagement of international experts.

Relating to income tax, Treasurer Charles Abel said a particular industry has been consistently declaring losses.

And this is one of the problem areas that will be looked at, now that PNG has entered into an agreement with the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD.

EITI releases 2016 Report

This is the fourth report by the entity since joining the global EITI standards movement.

In his forward in the report, Treasurer Charles Abel said the 2016 Financial Year Report is the culmination of continued commitment, collaboration and efforts by the Government, extractive industries and civil society organisations to provide a comprehensive picture of the sector, its impact on the economy and our management of the revenues and benefits derived.

Crackdown on public service

Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Charles Abel says it is about investing in the right areas of the public service such as teachers, nurses and police.

“We want to support those and we want to trim down central agencies of government to make us more efficient,” he states.

“Those people who are in the public service need to have contracts and conditions, time management and NID cards, so that they turn up to work as a real human being and they get paid, they are clocking in and they are earning their pay and they are producing results,” says Abel.

Business operators without TIN will be penalised: Abel

Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Charles Abel says: “They keep the cash out of the system, not using bank accounts, don’t have tax file numbers and all of that.”

The Government will now be introducing the “tax administration law”, where commercial banks will be giving the government information on all bank accounts that are operating like businesses.

“We have a range of measures that will bolster the system.