PNG compliant with tax: Report

PAPUA New Guinea has been rated by an international tax organisation as being “largely compliant”, according to Internal Revenue commissioner general Sam Koim.
Koim said the rating was done by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information (EOI) for Tax Purposes after undergoing a peer review process which commenced in 2017.
“The Global Forum is the leading international body working on the implementation of global transparency and exchange of information standards around the world and undertakes peer review of more than 160 participating jurisdictions from time to time,” Koim said.
“The Global Forum published nine new peer review reports on Sept 1, and Papua New Guinea is one of them.
“The report is a culmination of several years of hard work by the IRC in putting in place the necessary procedures and processes for effective exchanges of tax information.
“This also involved crucial input from key stakeholders such as Investment Promotion Authority (IPA) and Financial Analysis and Supervision Unit (FASU) of Bank of PNG.
“The significance of this (rating) was that this will give us greater footing to have access to tax information in other jurisdictions,” he said.
IPA managing director Clerance Hoot said work was in progress to address beneficiary ownership.
FASU director Benny Popotai said: “Having to achieve this in three years is something that we must be proud of as a whole of government team working to make sure we hone in on what is considered as corrupt practices which include tax evasion, and be able to track and trace people on where money is going.”