Mining, petroleum tax collection above budget

Total mining and petroleum tax contribution to the 2018 collection was K774 million, which exceeded budget projections by K49 million, Internal Revenue Commission (IRC) says.
According to Commissioner Dr Alois Daton, pictured, this indicated that collections were above budget and differed largely from the assertion that the mining and petroleum taxes were K500 million below budget.
Daton made this comment yesterday while responding to the Shadow Minister for Treasury and Finance, Ian Ling-Stuckey, that the commission collected K500 million less in mining and petroleum tax payments in 2018. Ling- Stuckey in an earlier statement said: “After excluding a large and unexpected mining and petroleum tax bonanza of nearly K700 million, all other Internal Revenue Commission collections are K500 million less than the Government wanted in 2018.
“The Government’s revenue strategy is failing because of its fake revenue forecasts.”
Daton rebutted: “In its 2018 Supplementary Budget, the Government set its revenue target at K7,955 million (K7.955 billion) which included a K725 million expected contribution from the resource sector.
“Total 2018 Internal Revenue Commission collections and transfers to Waigani Public Account of K8,019 million (K8.019 billion) as reported recently, exceeded the supplementary budget figure of K7,955 million.”
The IRC collected and transferred K8 billion to the Waigani Public Account (WPA) at the end of 2018, exceeding its budget target of K7.9 billion.
Daton had said the total figure was 8.4 per cent higher than Government projections at the time of 2018 budget. It was 5.2 per cent higher than Government’s revised projections in the Mid-Year Economic Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) and they had met both targets.
In terms of corporate income tax, IRC brought in K1.7 billion and that was 8 per cent above 2017 collections.
For salary and wages tax, the commission brought in K3.8 billion or three per cent above 2017 collections.
Daton said: “Because of the level of oil prices going up, we were able to collect K774 million against the K113 million collection in 2017.
“That’s about 582 per cent increase over the 2017 collections.”