Many Asian and PNG businesses are non tax compliant- IRC Commissioner General

BY SAM KOIM

I'm seeing many people jumping on the bandwagon, asking why we are not going after foreign businesses, especially Asian-owned companies, for tax-related crimes.

Papua New Guineans seem to be picking the victim card here on the flawed assumption that PNG owned businesses are honest and tax compliant. However, the opposite is true.

This statistical bias is based on perception and not reality. Our statistics show that many PNG-owned businesses are dishonest and non-compliant, as many Asian owned businesses do. PNG and Asian owned Businesses also feature prominently in bribing our officers. I'm not going to mince words here.

Figuratively speaking, we see nationals and foreigners alike putting on a lot of weight out there, yet coming to the tax office and putting on sorry faces and claiming that they have been on a serious diet.

IRC has been a passive tax collector for far too long, waiting for taxpayers to do the right thing by voluntarily paying their fair share of taxes on time. However, that putative expectation has been exploited by dishonest business people. That will be the thing of the past soon.

Under the strong political will committed by the Marape/Basil Government, we are addressing these long outstanding and ignored matters.

We are auditing a good number of these entities, including more than 20 logging companies. These audits take a great deal of time and resources due to the intricacies of the financial transactions involved. Some of these transactions transcend through multiple jurisdictions. These entities did not start their operations in the last two years, let alone their impugned evasion. They have been around.

The last two years of my term in office were dedicated to addressing in-house issues, including realigning people, systems and processes. Covid has disrupted most of our efforts during the same period. Still, we managed to get some things done, aside from delivering on our core mandate of collecting revenue for the Government.

We will start prosecuting tax fraudsters next year. We have already profiled several cases for prosecution. We investigate crime, and crime leads us to the criminal. We don't find a criminal (e.g. Asian) and look for a crime.

The last time I checked, we were still a democratic country that encouraged free trade and commerce, allowing foreigners to come here and invest.

Both foreigners and local businesses use taxpayer-funded services such as roads, electricity, security, etc., to make their money. Therefore, there is a reciprocal obligation on them to pay their fair share of taxes towards the public good. But those who fail to do that will find themselves paying more.

So for those of you who are crying foul, report to us a crime, and we will take the lead. We have investigated the number of cases referred to us by a few individuals.

We don't have the time and resources to go on a wild goose chase, so don't fill us with all your conjectures.

I hope this offers some clarity and comfort.