PM: Tax credit scheme on hold

PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill has put on hold the tax credit scheme because some companies had failed to carry it out “properly”.
He made the comment the Prime Minister Back to Business Breakfast in Port Moresby yesterday.
He said the scheme was being carried out by some of the project companies and large investors who had invested in rural areas around the country.
“We encourage that because they are better-placed to deliver some of the services (in communities) where Government agencies cannot get into,” O’Neill said.
“But I put a hold to it, I think three months ago basically because there is no transparency in that process.
“Actually it’s public money. We are giving you credit for tax that you are going to pay in the future.
“Now what we want to do is to make sure that the company that is going to put out the contact and carry out the work must go through a transparent bidding process so that we know that the price and costing is fair and is also beneficial.
“So we are working towards the review process and making sure it’s fair, it’s publicly tendered.”
Country manager of the New Britain Palm Oil Robert Nilkare said he saw the scheme as the best “public-private partnership model”.
“The tax credit scheme is the best PPP model simply because the industry that we are in deals more with infrastructure.
“The tax credit scheme works for many companies. It’s transparent, its practical, and the results are immediate.”