Chamber wants share of tax

THE East New Britain Chamber of Commerce will discuss with the provincial government ways to retain a share of the goods and services tax collected in the province to fund projects, says president David Stein.
He said the current economic situation was going to drag on for a while.
“It is rather disappointing for us in the provinces seeing astronomical amounts being spent on major projects in Port Moresby and we can’t even fix a pothole in our own province. And ENB is not alone,” he said.
Stein said it was obvious that East New Britain should do something because it should not expect any help from the government soon.
“We are talking with the provincial government about means either through legislation or existing legislation to keep a reasonable share of GST collected in the province to address urgent issues,” he said.
Stein said nothing irked businesses more than paying tax and seeing nothing for it.
“We need to rectify this chronic situation,” he said.
Stein said a recent road maintenance forum discussed pre-volcanic eruption days when the provincial government was allowed to retain tax to maintain 3km of road annually.