Businesses owed K100mil

By GYNNIE KERO
BUSINESSES in Port Moresby owed more than K100 million by the Government want a prompt settlement to help them recover from the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

President of the Port Moresby Chamber of Commerce and Industry Rio Fiocco said businesses wanted to continue operating and employing people.
“(It’s) well over a K100 million. It’s quite a lot of money,” he said.
“If those bills can be paid in a timely fashion, then businesses will be able to use the money to pay their employees and maintain their businesses in this difficult economic time. We would like the Government to pay the long-outstanding bills for goods and services supplied.”

Prime Minister James Marape last month said the Government was drawing up an economic recovery plan which included assisting small businesses and supporting people dependent on the informal sector.
“The Government’s 2020 budget will be used as a tool to ensure that there is life in the economy,” Marape said.
Fiocco said the Government last week raised more than K1 billion in bonds with the help of the business community.
“We would like to congratulate the Treasurer (Ian Ling-Stuckey) on the success of the recent Covid-19 bond auction, and urge the Government to use some of those funds to pay the long outstanding bills owed to the private sector,” he said.
“We would like to see some of that money back in the private sector.”
Fiocco said the unpaid bills included rentals for government offices and services provided during the APEC Leaders’ Summit in November 2018.
“A lot of small-medium enterprises (SME) have still not been paid after APEC, as well as the suppliers of a whole range of goods to the Government,” he said.
The Port Moresby chamber of commerce has more than 300 members including resource sector firms and SMEs.
City Pharmacy Limited Group managing director Mahesh Patel agreed with Fiocco that the business community was not looking for handouts from the Government.
“Pay your bills, we (private sector) keep people employed, we kick start the economy,” Patel said.
National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop urged the Government to support the business community.
“Up till now, the Government has only been talking but (yet) to reach out to the business houses to help them stimulate the economy,” he said.
PNG Employers Federation executive director Florence Willie questioned when workers in the private sector could return to work.
“We want some indication from the Government. Businesses are struggling. They have already terminated people and more will be terminated,” she said.