IRC renews tax agreement with province

Business

THE Internal Revenue Commission (IRC) has renewed a memorandum of understanding signed in 2018 with the Western Highlands government to improve compliance and tax collection in the province.
Commissioner-general Sam Koim said the province was the center of commercial activities in the Highlands.
Koim said the deal would see 60 percent of tax remitted to the IRC remitted back to the province to assist the development of utilities and infrastructure and other services.
“We would like to increase the taxes up in the Highlands in terms of collection and improving compliance so this partnership will go a long way in achieving that,” he said.
He said the IRC wanted to forge stronger alliance with the provincial governments in collecting revenue.
“Part of what we collect in terms of GST (goods and services tax) goes back to the provinces,” he said. The IRC office in Western Highlands is serving other Highlands provinces.
“We have Jiwaka, Hela and Southern Highlands that are still to have an office,” he said.
Provincial administrator Joseph Keng said there was a lot of areas that needed improvement in WHP.
Neng said such partnership in renewing the agreement would increase tax collection and ensure that businesses in the provinces were tax compliant.