Morobe preserving revenue by diversifying tax base

Morobe content plan aims to expand and diversify its tax base to preserve its internal revenue, an official says.
Policy and strategy analyst Noah Ariku said the plan was endorsed by the provincial and national executive councils.
“As part of that, we have the small-to-medium enterprise (SME) and the corporative society pillar which we intend to empower our rural population with,” he said.
Ariku said people in rural areas needed to engage in small businesses so they could then contribute to goods and service tax (GST) to increase internal revenue and allow government to fund services in the province. “The rationale is that rural people have the potential to contribute to goods and service tax,” he said.
“What they contribute put together can outweigh what we are getting from the mining and petroleum sector.
“And GST from people is more sustainable.”
Ariku said a team from the Morobe policy and strategy unit in partnership with other government agencies had been conducting awareness on programmes.
“That’s what we are introducing now and aligning with the Covid-19 economic stimulus package of the Government,” he said.