Country to earn from LNG in 2018

TREASURY Secretary Dairi Vele says the country will start receiving revenue from the PNG LNG project in 2018 and 2019 through tax revenues.
He said the country had not received any LNG money.
“The good times are two-and-a-half or three years away,” Vele said.
“There is a lot of misunderstanding about LNG money. As far as the Government is concerned, LNG money hasn’t come into PNG yet and is not supposed to.
“We always knew that the LNG money is supposed to come by way of taxes in around 2018 and 2019.
“The company and Government included borrowed over $19 billion to participate in the project. So that’s got to be a period where they pay that dinau (debt) back. After that, we will start receiving the tax revenues.
“For us the challenge right now is that we live within our means. Let’s survive this period because it’s going to be very tight.”
On the department’s 2016 mid-year economic and fiscal outlook, he said warning signals called for urgent Government action on a sustainable budget.
Vele, the Government’s chief economic adviser, said due to certain factors (like commodity prices, El Nino) the country was not able to earn K1.9 billion as it forecast it would.