Image: Bewani landowners walk across pile of felled logs, West Sepik Province
By Stanley Ove Jr – EMTV NEWS Port Moresby
The Sandaun Provincial Government is calling for an increase share in revenue collected from logging exports in West Sepik.
Governor, Tony Wouwou said after years of exports, West Sepik has nothing to show for in terms of infrastructure developments using logging levies.
“The country gets around K50mil, while the Province gets K2mil. The Province has not been able to see tangible developments in over 30 years of logging exports,” Governor Wouwou said.
The Governor said there must be some flexibility in revenue collection and that an Infrastructure Tax Revenue Scheme must be established for logging provinces.
West Sepik Provincial Administrator Conrad Tilau said the Government must allocate 25% of logging exports into this credit scheme if created.
“We only collect K2 for every cubic meter of log we export, so that is not enough. We need an infrastructure credit scheme so it can be used to develop the necessary infrastructure we need in the Province,” Mr Tilau said.
