Capital city looking to collect money from 72,000 taxpayers

By SHIRLEY MAULUDU
THE National Capital District Commission (NCDC) hopes to collect more revenue from the 72,000 TIN (taxpayer identification number) holders in the capital city.
This follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Internal Revenue Commission (IRC) in Port Moresby yesterday.
IRC commissioner-general Sam Koim said of the 72,000 TIN holders, about 13,000 are active taxpayers.
“The arrangement is that the NCDC, as a second layer government, depends entirely on the taxes that we collect within NCD,” Koim said.
“They (receive) 60 per cent of the GST (goods and services tax) we collect in the city.
“They don’t get any other funding from the Government through the budget. But this budget that comes from IRC.
“Plus, they depend on the municipal fees that they collect.”
City manager Ravu Frank said: “Money is needed to provide services to the city and this arrangement will enhance that.
“The objective we would like to achieve through this cooperation is to collect all legitimate taxes and GST from defaulters. Also to widen the taxpayer net.” Koim said the NCD had about 72,000 taxpayers according to the registered TINs in their record.
“NCD hosts about half of the registered TINs we have at IRC,” he said.
“Of that, less than 12 per cent or 13,000 thereabouts are active TINs. “But those active TINs do not mean that all of them are paying their fair share of taxes under the laws.
“This partnership will go a long way in terms of aligning our resource, sharing, collaborating and making sure that those taxpayers benefiting from services the city is providing pay their fair share of taxes. The city is growing but the income to both the Government and NCD has not grown much.”