Muthuvel welcomes tax decision

WEST New Britain Governor Sasindran Muthuvel has welcomed the Government’s decision to allow provincial governments to collect their own tax revenue from next year.
In 2012, the Government revoked the tax imposed on beer and cigarettes which badly affected West New Britain’s revenue source.
The provincial government had been collecting 20 toea per bottle of beer and 3 toea per cigarette, totalling K2 million per annum before the ban.
“The provincial government was already struggling even with the tax revenue from beer and cigarettes. The ban imposed worsened our internal revenue figures,” he said.
“By law, all provincial governments are eligible to collect tax, including GST. This was agreed to by the Government to share the GST revenue on a 60:40 ratio basis, with 60 per cent for the province and 40 per cent for the Government.
“It was only fair for the provincial government to collect tax from alcohol which is indicated in most cases, the cause of 90 per cent of our law and order issues and road accidents.
“Coincidentally, the revenue collected from these taxes will be put to mitigating law and order issues and addressing health service delivery.”
Muthuvel said he was certain that local businesses would support the tax as they too would benefit in terms of a conducive environment to conduct their operations.