Marape: Govt needs K20 billion in revenue

THE Government needs to be raising K20 billion annually in revenue to “run efficiently”, says Prime Minister James Marape.
For the past 30 years, it had been raising only around K11bil which he said was not enough.
“The need of the country has gone past K11 billion. We need K20 billion to run the country (efficiently), do a great job of running the country,” he said.
“Revenue collected average around K11bil. From that, K8 billion is used to pay police, teachers, public servants – known as recurrent expenditures including salaries.”
“The K2bil to K3 billion left is used to build new infrastructure when needed.
“The country needs more money for development at all levels across the country,” he said.
He yesterday opened the renovated police station at Waigani in Port Moresby.
“Every year for the past 25 years, we have spent over 20 per cent of the budget on law and order. We don’t have enough to invest in education and health infrastructure among other things.
“We can (also) contribute (funding) to infrastructure around the country if we take ownership of law and order,” he said.
Meanwhile, Marape has pledged his support to the Police Minister Bryan Kramer and Commissioner David Manning to institute reforms in the constabulary.
Opening the K4.6 million renovated Waigani police station in North Waigani yesterday, Marape said: “I have given full powers to the minister and commissioner to modernise the police force by (pushing) reforms in the constabulary.
“I give the Government’s full support to the minister and the commissioner to ensure we modernise the (constabulary) and make police step in the right direction.”