Some mining companies not paying taxes: Tuke

By SHIRLEY MAULUDU
SOME companies in the mining sector have not been paying corporate income tax since commencing operations, Mining Minister Johnson Tuke says.
He said this practice has to stop.
“We are very much resourceful and yet very poor,” he said.
“Papua New Guineans are not only resourceful in mining but in other areas as well but all these do not translate and equate to whatever amount of resource that we have.
“There is a huge erosion taking place.
“There is a huge invasion taking place.
“They (mining companies) have been in operation for many years.
“One could ask them that, if a company is not making any profit, why would they continue operating?
“Papua New Guineans are better educated to diagnose what’s going on.
“This doesn’t mean to scare the mining companies away.
“They are on equal footing as our development partners.
“Sometimes we have got to change the pattern of conducting business.
“We cannot live the same.
“We cannot continue to inherit the past and think that this is all we can see.”