Centre drives K15m in taxes

By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
The Manus government has generated more than K15 million in taxes since the establishment of the regional processing centre there, administrator Andrew Posong says.
“This has helped in the funding of social and economical projects which cannot be met by the provincial and district support grants,” Posong said yesterday.
“This is an advantage because most of the funds from the district services improvement programme and provincial services improvement programme (PSIP) go to the high cost of transporting materials from Lae and Madang and there is very little funds left to carry out projects.
“But with taxes generated from business houses for supplying goods to the camps in East Lorengau and Lombrum, we are now successfully carrying out projects that should have been done long time ago.”
Posong said that they got K5 million in PSIP funds in 2015 and the grants increased to K10 million last year.
“But since the establishment of the  regional processing camp,  their  internal revenue of K1.7 million annually  went up to K16 million last year.
“And K11 million went to impact project.  This year, it is expected to increase to K24 million.
“But the Supreme Court has ruled for the camp to close and they (detainees) have to go.
“The question now is where are we going to get the money and how are we going to sustain that amount of money that is coming to the province?”
The administrator said AusAID had provided funding assistance since the establishment of the centre.