K84mil in fuel tax exemption facilitated

ABOUT K84 million in fuel tax exemption has been facilitated since the Government introduced a relief package in April to assist people cope with the rising cost of goods and services, an official says.
PNG Customs Chief Commissioner David Towe said the Excise Tariff Act and GST Act (amended 2022) gave effect to a six-month outright exemption on diesel, petrol and zoom products from May 1 to Oct 31, 2022, from the impact of the on-going Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“The tax amendments are part of the Governmen’s K611 million relief package to assist families on cost-of-living pressures,” he said.
Towe last week explained the tax exemptions facilitated by Customs.
“As part of the package, the excise tax rates of 23 toea on diesel, 61 toea on petrol and two toea on zoom, as well as, the 10 per cent GST are all removed entirely from the retail price of the mentioned fuels,” he said.
“This change in tax rates is estimated to cost the Government K250 million in foregone revenue.”
He said Customs, as the collector of excise and import taxes, implemented the tax rates change into its tax system (ASYCUDA World) effective May 8.
This is in line with the Independent Consumer and Compentation Commission normal effective date for setting the domestic retail fuel prices.
On Friday, Aug 19, PNG Customs facilitated about K84.05 million worth of fuel exemption.
“This comprised K51.04 million in excise exemption and K33.01 million in import GST exemption,” Towe said.
He said the Government removed the tax component from the retail prices of diesel, petrol and zoom to assist consumers save the tax part of their cost on buying fuel.