Contributors’ savings should not be taxed: PM

 PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill has suggested that contributors to Nasfund and Nambawan Super should not be taxed on their savings.

He said this on the FM 100 Talkback Show on Tuesday when asked by an Ok Tedi Mining Ltd (OTML) employee in Kiunga if the Government could reduce the amount of taxation on their final payouts. 

O’Neill said he could not comment on this, pending discussions with taxation experts. But he said superfund contributors should not be heavily taxed when withdrawing their savings.

“From what I gather, when you put money in your superfund, Nambawan Super or Nasfund, when you take that money out, you are fully taxed,” he said.

“The taxes have already been paid when you make your contributions anyway. The last thing we want to do is tax them twice.

‘When they first get their salary, we tax them, and when they pick up their contributions we are taxing them again. That’s what we are trying to avoid.”

O’Neill said the government had to be careful with the OTML issue.

“The last thing we want to do is have a situation where we can do something for an individual company, not for the rest,” he said.