Madang govt outlines plan for royalties, shares
The National, Thursday 9th May 2013
By JAYNE SAFIHAO
THE Madang provincial government has outlined a 20-point plan “after a long consultation with many experts”.
Governor Jim Kas said the ideas came up after a review of the original 2000 memorandum of agreement.
It includes:
l External independent parties to conduct and complete the MoA review process as is currently done by Tanorama Consultants;
l To include Gama LLG as party to the MoA;
l A 3% share of the 20% royalty paid to the provincial government to be redirected to landowners of easements via various landowning groups;
l Provincial government to pursue its 2.5% equity as recently stipulated by law;
l A submission to the national government and the developer Ramu Nico MCC Ltd, to restore the 2% rate applied for royalties from the current 1.25%;
l Calculation of special support grants to be lifted to 1% from the current 0.25%;
l In the event that equity is not given in the project the MPG will seek an increase of rate calculating royalties and SSG’s to 5%;
l The establishment of the Ramu Nickel Foundation as a vehicle for maximum benefit to landowners located at the provincial headquarters;
l A provincial environments policy;
l Committees such as business development, environment, training and localisation to be properly constituted and established;
l Call for the special lands titles commission to be expedited with a declaration made soon;
l Special economic development projects committed by the provincial government have been endorsed with funding from internal and external donors forthcoming; and
l All tax benefits from the provincial government to be collected.
The provincial government delegation agreed on the need for a mine closure and decommissioning plan to be formulated immediately.