By Jack Lapauve Jr, EMTV – Port Moresby
With the growth in the oil and gas sector in PNG, auditing of mining and petroleum companies is vital.
The Internal Revenue Commission have taken steps to improve the capacity of auditors and skilled officers, thanks to a new program which focuses on the necessary specialist training.
A training program is currently underway to develop technical audit expertise to manage the administration of mining companies.
The training will build and develop skills for comprehensive audits in this tough economic climate. Consultants were engaged to deliver this training on areas including excess allowable expenditure deductions, exploration expenditure deductions, mine decommissioning claims, foreign contractor claims, infrastructure tax, credit expenditure claims and transfer of mining expenditure deductions.
A strong focus is placed on tax risk analysis and the capture of tax revenue through corporations using transfer pricing arrangemen’s.
This will also boost IRC’s capacity to protect Papua New Guinea’s tax revenue, and for mining giants to comply with tax laws.
The mining sector contributes around 65 per cent to the national purse every year.
