City set to receive share of money from IRC

MOROBE capital and Papua New Guinea’s second city, Lae, is set to receive a larger share of the money paid back to the province by the Internal Revenue Commission (IRC).
The IRC and Lae city authority (LCA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Thursday that would see the city take 20 per cent of what the Morobe government received from the tax it paid to the national government.
The MoU was signed by IRC commissioner-general Sam Koim, Morobe Governor Ginson Saonu and Lae MP John Rosso, with Prime Minister James Marape and provincial administrator Bart Ipambonj witnessing.
Koim said the MoU was a special arrangement on the goods and services (GST) tax collected, of which, 60 per cent was sent back to the province every month.
“We send the GST component arrangement to the provinces so the provinces do not wait for the funds to be released from Vulupindi Haus (Treasury) but straight from us,” he said.
“For Morobe, under this arrangement, the understanding reach is that of the 60 per cent sent to the province, 20 per cent of that is given to the LCA.”
Koim commended Saonu for having the agreement ready for signing and allowing Lae to receive more money.
He said the IRC would forward the calculated amount monthly straight to the LCA account.
“With this kind of arrangement, the LCA will have the money to provide services to the tax paying community,” he said.
Rosso said the occasion was a memorable one and praised Saonu for his willingness to support Lae.
“With Lae collecting a lot of revenue for the city and the country but whoever lives in Morobe capital will realise that none of their money gets put back in Lae, a city of nearly half of a million people that runs solely on K10 million district services improvement programme, that is wrong,” he said.
“Everyone in Lae pays taxes but our roads are not managed properly, street lights are non-existent, garbage is not collected on time and people who pay taxes deserve these services.”