District received K5mil over 5 years from export levy

By SHIRLEY MAULUDU
THE Wewak district development authority (DDA) has received K5 million over the last five years from the log export development levy, an official says.
Wewak MP Kevin Isifu said revenue from log exports had assisted the DDA complete projects in the project impact areas.
He said this at the opening of new Forestry office in Wewak on Friday.
“For so long, there has been shipment of logs or exports that have left the shores of East Sepik,” Isifu said.
“There has never been a proper office or administration building to house the staff so that they can do their jobs in terms of properly doing calculation of the volume of logs or doing other forestry administration work for the province. Many times along the way, we may have lost some revenue due to the fact that there had not been a proper office facility in the province to monitor forest exports like the number of round logs that East Sepik has produced — we need to account for that properly.”
Isifu said benefits needed to be paid to landowners as royalties including revenue paid to the district and provincial governments.
“Within these five years, Wewak district received K5 million from the log export development levy.
“We were able to open up road links in especially Turubu LLG where we have also partnered with investors.
“For the first time in 40 years, we have roads where people were able to access. Part of the money was also used to build schools, and health facilities.”