Give loans, not handouts: Chow

By NATHAN WOTI
LAE businessman Ian Chow says the Government is making a grave mistake by giving relief funds to businesses affected by the Jan 10 civil unrest instead of offering low interest loans.
The Lae Biscuit Company chairman said just handing out cash to affected businesses would foster an expectation of state help whenever situations arose.
“The Government is setting a bad precedent for future,” he said.
“Every businesses will run to the Government every time there is a riot.
“It should not be free money. It should be a low-interest long-term loan arrangement. Free money will be bad for future.”
He added that it was wrong for the Government to give full compensation to the burnt shops, “because riots and civil unrest happen all the time in PNG”.
“If they set the precedent then all future government will be paying out for these unrests”.
He also described as “unbelievable” claims by some of the affected companies of their losses.
Chow said the Internal Revenue Commission (IRC) needed to verify the taxes, including the good and services tax (GST) to verify the “ridiculous claims”.
He said that while it was sad and unfortunate to see the burning of the shops and warehouses, it was something that had been brewing for decades.
“The oppressed grassroots (people on the streets) just exploded like a volcano,” he said.
He said low-interest loans were a better, sustainable response from a responsible authority.
“All good businesses have insurance. It adds to our overall expenses but in PNG you will be unwise not to insure,” he added.
Attempts to get comments from the IRC regarding the GST of these impacted companies, as well as Finance and the State Negotiation Team (SNT) on whether giving impacted businesses money was setting a bad precedent were unsuccessful.