Basil wants ‘big bucks earners’ to pay up tax

Main Stories

TREASURER Sam Basil, pictured, is warning those holding high corporate positions and earning big bucks, running into millions of kina, to declare and pay up their personal income tax.
“The Papua New Guinea (PNG) Internal Revenue Commission (IRC) will now be focusing on investigating the income tax declarations of multi-millionaires and to go after them, when needed,” he said.
“We understand that there corporate figures serving in boards, chairman of boards, managing big State entities and multi-national companies whose wages run to a million or kinas or more, with perks and privileges.
“These are the people that IRC is now turning the spot light on and we will get such individuals to declare their (true) income tax,” he said.
Basil said “this crackdown” was among the many initiatives that the IRC was undertaking to recoup revenue lost over the years. While commending IRC’s efforts to recover some K18 billion in under-reported sales income from 127 companies, he said: “Many big bucks earners are evading tax.
“We will also be looking into their operations and activities, registering companies, transferring income within companies and turning incomes into company expenses.”
“Such activities are practiced in other countries but PNG’s economic base has grown significantly and we see many big entities here, including State-owned entities, State-owned companies and we see individuals earning big bucks.
“I wish to advise them to step forward to the IRC, submit declarations and pay their personal and company taxes.
“Earnings need to be honestly reported so that the government, through the IRC, can collect its worth of taxes (for socio-economic development),” Basil said.