Tax hike will only hurt our people

THE Government’s intentions, 2022 Budget and plans to raise more money in all forms of taxes from next year onwards will hit many Papua New Guinean families.
This is confirmed by an article citing the treasure in the other daily titled “More tax increases expected in 2022”.
The new increase in all price of goods and service is good for any government to raise more money to pay our international and domestic loan debts and interest commitments but how about our ordinary Papua New Guinean citizens, especially simple villagers and the unemployed women and youths around the country?
In PNG, we sometimes categorise our citizens in four different classes – high, middle, low and lower (poor or grassroots) – however, everyone pays same Goods and Service Tax (GST) on consumer items every single day.
The biggest losers are the working class who pay salaries and wages income tax every fortnight and, at the same time, GST on all consumer goods.
National Treasury and Planning offices should have either reduced the income tax on salaries and wages or do away with it altogether and concentrate on GST.
Let me back up my argument.
The latest introduction of Government taxes on the banking and telecommunications sector will always be passed onto the consumers even all public and private sector employees.
In PNG, we all try to look after each other so what an employee earns is not just for him/herself, but for others as well.
The cost of living is already sky high – high rentals, school fees, water and electricity bills, family obligations (funerals, bride price, compensations), loan repayments and personal entertainment just to name a few.
Our Government planners and bureaucrats must take into account the “PNG way”of living and doing things and before making decisions on tax measures.
A reason why this tax increase came about is that over the last 46 years of independence, the Government has continuously borrowed money, increasing our debts and interest levels.
What we should be doing is; opening up the country with more national and provincial links with roads and bridges connecting provinces, districts and LLGs; put more money into agriculture, forestry and fisheries development and concentrate on downstream processing of all our national resources; create more employment; and, improve our Small and Medium Enterprises through soft government guaranteed domestic bank loans in order to improve our country’s economy and see an increase in exports markets and reducing our imports components.
Lastly, any Government revenue and expenditure budget must not be based on assumptions and predictions on any new project developments as there is no political guarantee that a government will return to power after an election.
A nation can talk and dream big revenue and expenditure budget plans, but the reality is, PNG must concentrate on important national resource projects and make big money before we dream about spending big.
Our leaders must think big from now on and stop foreign loans and start the down streaming of our resources and making and saving money if we are serious about taking back PNG 50 years from now.

Samson Napo
Former Bulolo MP