State owes firms K2.8bil

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By CLARISSA MOI
BUSINESSES are urging the Government to pay them the K2 billion in unpaid bills dating back to four years, plus K880 million in unpaid superannuation, according to the PNG Business Council.
Council executive director Douveri Henao said businesses wanted the Government to pay up now to address their cash flow issues caused by the Covid-19.
“That’s a significant amount of money. And some of these bills go all the way back to the 2016 Pacific Games, 2018 Apec (Leaders’ Summit) and other activities three to four years ago,” he said.
“It adds stress to the private sector that’s already seeing massive decline in sales. And with this type of debt hovering over them, the current market condition is extremely under stress.”
The council recently conducted a survey of business leaders on what they wanted from the Government.
The main recommendation is the need for action and policies which can help businesses and the economy recover.
They also want an investor-friendly environment and for the Government to accelerate resource projects to generate market demand.
Meanwhile, the survey also revealed that only one per cent of businesses in the country had benefitted from the Government’s stimulus package between April and July. Henao said 68 per cent of businesses had not benefitted at all from the stimulus package, and 31 per cent had no idea what the stimulus package was.
“The main thing we identified from this survey is that many businesses remained uniformed on only how to access the stimulus package.”

11 comments

  • The business should be commended for bring out the issue. It was public knowledge there and then that ON regime was incurring huge cost for the nation just to gain recognition. No one really bothered to raise the issue. Now he is pointing fingers at PMJM. He should feel ashamed of himself and not to counter decisions made by this government trying to put back what he had created for over 8 years. now the current government is shouldering the debts.

  • State owing that much money to businesses is a shameful thing. The state must pay up and allow the business houses to continue operating. Totally unfair.

  • These debts only go back to 2016. That’s a mere four years. And four years Melanesian time remember. The equivalent of two weeks normal time. I know some public servants who have been on holiday since 2011 and don’t intend getting back to work for another five years or so, when the coffee they stole from the office canteen runs out. These businesses should remember where they are, respect local customs and be patient.

  • We have seen real development during PO’s term as a prime minister. I was amazed by the changes around the country during PO’s era. Do not point the finger at him. If he was not there, I would not be enjoying many of the services I enjoy today. Any government has that mandate to repay any loan incurred by the state so the government should honor that slowly. Repaying it little by little is better than not do anything at all.

  • This is great pointing this out, how about the bills rendered prior this recent reported one’s. Successive governments have outstanding could mount up to billions which we don’t know

  • Please state /Government of the day please pay that long overdue outstanding to Nambawan super or Nasfund so retired, resigned or other public servants /affected covid19 private sector former employees can benefit from their savings / can save their final entitlements and venture into other business opportunities such as Government institutes like National Development Bank SMEs etc. Please allocate fund to superfunds and other areas that majority of the population can directly benefit from subsidies areas that directly affect the people do research or send out Public servants to go out and conduct interviews and surveys of people affected by COVID 19 and beyond. So it that manner living standards are improved one way or the other instead relaxing and announcing and wasting tax payers money on media /newspapers /radio etc. announcing the package and so forth.
    People want real, and real visual developments of all sectors/forms of development, from infrastructure, health medicine access to quality road (feeder/highways) ,access to better education, and employment earning opportunities and the list goes on the National Development Bank should be a very flexible and easy Govt institiute for grassroots to access loan products to prosper in farming,and etc activities .
    GOVERNMENT PLEASE ‘LETS WALK THE TALK. or LET ACTIONS DO THE TALKING’

  • Well stated by Mr Maru Bala. If teachers pay s are high, then stds performance will also be high. PNG govt, see example of South Korea Govt.

  • Dear Businessmen,
    For the money you are owed you can go to the POM MP Hotcake salesman. He has lots of money hidden in Australian accounts and properties that came from the Games and APEC that he collected from bribes, skimming, inflated contracts, overbilling, etc.
    If you never get paid, in order to keep calm you can take some Yoga classes from another POM MP’s mistress that cost taxpayers millions of Kina. Hope this advice was helpful

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