Tax payers in PNG are paying too much, and employees in both the private and public sector want to pay a fixed amount of tax from their salaries.
These were amongst issues raised at the two-day PNG Taxation Research and Review Symposium launched today.
PNG Tax Review Committee Chairman, Sir Nagora Bogan, said the symposium aims to review and improve the national taxation system to encompass every citizen.
Valuable stakeholders from the Internal Revenue Commission, National Research Institute, Tax Review committee, treasury and finance departments, and entrepreneurs, including guest speakers from reputable Australian universities, participated in the symposium.
The symposium, with support from the National Research Institute and the committee, intends to put in place appropriate reforms in order to realign the tax system to support the country’s present, medium and long term economic and social development.
During discussions, there were issues of paying too much tax, having a fixed amount of tax in place for both the public and private sector employees amongst other recommendations were made by participants.
Guest speakers presented findings on personal and corporate tax, taxation on mining activities, petroleum industries, goods and services, excise and customs tariff arrangements, just to name a few.
Many said that Papua New Guinea was a low income country in the Pacific; however, its tax payers have contributed way above the 2 percent range annually.
Sir Nagora said the 2-day symposium launched today will assemble findings from invited scholars and research practitioners from diverse disciplines to compile and submit discussion notes as a volume to the Tax Review Committee.
The symposium found that many SMEs and other small businesses do not pay tax; this and other factors contribute to high amount tax payers bear.
The committee is adamant that once all these loopholes are identified, an appropriate and reasonable national tax system will be created to benefit all parties.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=3BYPnIPCD50%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque%26showinfo%3D0%26showsearch%3D0%26rel%3D0
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