Pruaitch praises govt tax collection efforts

By BIBIAN BARRENG
THE ultimate goal of tax administration is to make taxpayers pay their taxes voluntarily.
This is one major issue raised by caretaker Minister for Treasury, Finance and Forestry Patrick Pruaitch at the opening of the 4th Pacific Islands taxation administrators association (PITAA) conference last Tuesday.
Mr Pruaitch noted that in meeting this objective of voluntary compliance, governments can then be able to meet its objectives particularly that of development objectives.
“Tax administration plays a very special role in enabling the Government to fund priority projects like roads and airports and to provide the people better social services like education and health,” Mr Pruaitch reminded the participants.
He gave example of PNG’s medium-term development strategy where its expenditure priorities rely largely on the revenue raising ability of the Internal Revenue Commission (IRC).
“Each time a taxpayer does not comply with the tax laws, it means less revenue for Government and less money that can be spent on the development objectives and services that would benefit Papua New Guineans,” he added.
The minister also pointed out that IRC’s internal information technology systems and the tax reform efforts needed improvement
With the information technology, Mr Pruaitch noted it as one area where tax administrations often find it hard to keep up with business and as such proper application of technology was vital to improve efficiency and improve the target of identifying those taxpayers who were most likely to be non-compliant.
The conference is being attended by 40 participants from the Pacific Island countries including Australia and New Zealand.

 

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