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Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey

THE Government has allocated K590 million in the Budget 2023 for what it calls the ‘Household Assistance Package’.
Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey said prices for some key items had gone up significantly and the package was to help relieve cost-of-living pressures facing families.
Presenting the money plan in Parliament yesterday, Ling-Stuckey said the Government understood that the imported inflationary pressures were affecting the price of cooking oil and rice and other essential household items, as well as fuel costs.
The K590 million relief includes:

  • TAX cuts of K63 per fortnight for those earning more than K20,000 per year for 2023. This will be done by temporarily lifting the tax-free threshold to K20,000 at a cost of K280 million;
  • K150 MILLION will be provided for reducing fuel prices. All excise taxes on fuels will be removed through to June 30, 2023. This will keep petrol prices down by about 61t per litre, and diesel prices down by 23t per litre; and,
  • K160 MILLION is allocated for removing school fee project costs in 2023. This is a particularly-important measure to get assistance out to rural areas and families.

The Government will cover the full 20 per cent school project fee costs in 2023.
“A family no longer has to pay the project fee of K220 for each of its children attending secondary schools. Families will be saved K60 for each child attending primary school, or K200 for each child attending vocational schools,” Lin-Stuckey said.
For the income tax cuts, Ling-Stuckey added workers earning less than K769 per fortnight, they will pay no income tax at all.
“This measure benefits those that are in the formal sector earning more than double the minimum wage, some five per cent of PNG’s workforce,” he said.
He said the relief is provided despite inflation being expected to fall in 2023 to 5.7 per cent, significantly below PNG’s long-term average inflation rate of 6.8 per cent.
The inflation measure is an average measure of costs including housing costs and whitegoods and furniture and electrical and sometimes does not fully reflect the pressures being felt by households in their weekly grocery shopping.
“The Government will continue monitoring these cost of living pressures on families. There is a clear willingness to provide relief, but a government committed to budget repair simply cannot afford to cover all of these cost-of-living issues.
“What has already been done in 2022 and again in 2023, at a total cost of K1,177 million (K1.2 billion) across two years, is already very substantial,” he said.
Prime Minister James Marape on Monday said the Budget 2023 was the ‘people’s budget’.
He said it was the first time for a government to develop a household assistance scheme, to help address some of the cost-of-living pressures such as increased prices for fuel, cooking oil, rice and fertiliser for farmers.
Meanwhile, Parliament Clerk Kala Aufa said debate on the budget would most likely be on Friday.
“Tomorrow will be normal government business,” he said.