A member of parliament has urged government to ensure the revised 2022 money plan is implemented soundly.
Northern Governor, Gary Juffa said while many local citizens were being over taxed and paying their dues, others weren’t.
“We have a black economy! It is an area where a lot of illegal activities happen or taxes are evaded or transferred,” Governor Juffa said.
The former PNG Customs Chief turned politician said, “The black economy has billions of Kina in there that never make it into our (PNG) coffers”.
He alleged that there were illegal activities taking place outside PNG waters.
“Did you know Mr. Treasurer, that significant or large volumes of fuel used by some of the players in this black economy, especially those in the forestry sector and those in the fisheries sector come across from the borders of Indonesia?”
“They are never taxed, they just hover outside our EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zones), ships go out (to sea) and get the fuel and come here and spread it out to their operations, and they pay absolutely no excise duty on this,” Garry Juffa said.
“We need to take these guys (companies not paying tax) on, we need to hold them accountable, we are not doing that!” Governor Juffa added.
“Most of it is transmitted offshore to build empires in other countries,” he concluded.
He said it was time institutions of government step up, and ensure that they serve the interest of the nation with integrity.
“We need to carry out a review of all the creatures (government entities) that we have created”.
According to an Attorney General’s report of the year 2018, 1419 government entities are operating in the country.
“Many of these organizations are performing in the best interest of the country, they are assets but there are a great number of them that are liabilities,” Governor Juffa said.
“They have executives, some have boards, they have a budget line, we don’t know what they do.
The state entities soak up significant amounts of money that ought to go to schools, aid posts, roads, bridges etc,” said Juffa.
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