Address ‘compliancy gap’

 THERE is a need to address tax compliancy issues in the country, according to Tax Review Committee chairman Sir Nagora Bogan.

Sir Nagora said there was a gap of more than 40 per cent in compliancy by entities and individuals. 

This came about because of under-investment in the Internal Revenue Commission and PNG Customs in raising domestic revenues.

“The IRC and Customs raise 80 per cent of the total revenue – about K7.5 billion, according to 2014 figures,” Sir Nagora said. 

“And PNG Customs is about K2.6 billion – roughly K9 billion out of the K11 billion revenue raised domestically.

“We have to pay attention to these two agencies to make sure that we equip them properly, not just in term of giving them money, but from the leadership, governance structure, systems and processes. We need to tackle the issue of the compliance gap. 

“There are so many people who are not paying at the moment and that is costing the Government millions of Kina.” 

Sir Nagora said there must be a central revenue administration board to drive the transformation and to assist both agencies to close the gaps.

He said funding should be allocated to them.