Paying taxes plays important role in development, expert says

VISITING political economist Prof Mick Moore believes tax has an important role to play in a country’s development.
Moore, chief executive officer of the International Centre for Tax and Development in the UK, is in Port Moresby for a series of meeting with the Government and public servents to discuss obstacles and opportunities for public revenue generation in PNG.
He said while people might not necessarily like tax, its effective collection is often linked to good governance and better public services and infrastructure.
“There is actually quite a strong connection globally between the ways in which countries raise tax revenue and the way in which they are governed,” Moore said.
“When countries are well governed, when disputes are resolved peacefully – elections are held regularly, the rule of law prevails, roads are in reasonable repair, citizens can rely on government for at least basic health, education and welfare services and government is broadly trusted – then we generally find that government revenue systems are healthy.”
Moore will address the final Toktok Bilong Strongim Nesen discussion series event for 2019 themed “Billions from betel nuts? Taxation, growth and governance”.
He will be joined in the discussion by East Sepik Governor Allan Bird, acting Internal Revenue Commissioner for Taxation Pauline Bre, KPMG managing partner Zanie Theron and Tanorama executive director Martin Brash (moderator).
Moore’s visit and the discussion series are supported through the PNG-Australia partnership and opening will be done Australian High Commissioner Bruce Davis.
It is expected that the event will cover a range of topics ranging from small and medium-sized enterprises to PNG’s extractive sector, which represented 86 per cent of total export value in 2017. Moore acknowledged that it was often difficult for governments to collect income from small-scale businesses and cautioned on attempts to tax rural people.
“It’s a very expensive business,” he said, “it is easy to spend most of the money connected on the salaries of the people doing the tax collection.
“If low-income farmers are going to pay any kind of direct tax, then they should be paying small.”