‘Financial autonomy to complement govt support’

STRENGTHENING provincial autonomy and revenue self-sustainability through businesses enterprises or provincial taxation could result in more national support to provinces, according to the Farmers and Settlers Association.
President Wilson Thompson made the statement yesterday following the election of James Marape as Prime Minister in Parliament on Tuesday.
He said this could result in more national support to provinces that generate more of their own revenue such as resource-rich and population dense provinces.
“The more autonomy that provinces have on charging their own taxes, the more complex, and perhaps costly, it becomes for compliant businesses to invest in them unless provincial taxes are permitted to be substituted for national taxes,” Thompson said.
“If such provinces are then to be eligible for more national public sector supports, inequalities will widen between provinces and it may even get to the point where disadvantaged provinces start paying for developments in advantaged provinces.”
He reserved activities for local enterprises were not as beneficial as expected.