Acting Bougainville Chief Tax Collector Aloyis Daton has appealed to the Bougainville Executive Council (BEC) to review the taxation laws in Bougainville as some regulations were harsh and did not contribute to the economic development.
Mr Daton said that he had presented the submission on the suggested taxation policies to the Minister for Finance in Bougainville and that they are waiting for a formal meeting with the Bougainville Executive Council (BEC) to discuss further on how to reduce the taxation laws next month.
This would result in the introduction of the new taxation policies, he said.
Mr Daton said that Bougainville needed its own taxation laws that were suitable and applicable to the business environment in Bougainville.
Business ventures of Bougainville were unique and differ significantly from business ventures in Papua New Guinea, he said.
He said that the current taxation laws that were adopted from Papua New Guinea into the taxation system of Bougainville were not successfully working however, those laws needed to be reviewed to suit the needs of the business ventures.
Mr Daton said that the suggested five taxation policies that would work in the region were:
- Taxation Legal framework for Bougainville
- Exemption from GST for sales tax payers
- Forgiveness of tax debt for Bougainville businesses
- Amalgamation of tax and revenue agencies and
- Enactment of road user tax
He said that these were the five policies papers that the Minister for Finance will present to the BEC next month.
Mr Daton said that the objectives of the five taxation policies were to;
- Recognize the rights and responsibilities of the citizens and the government
- Define a taxation system and administration and
- Raise the revenue.
Mr Daton said that the initial purpose of the review was to welcome a healthy cash flow of the tax payment by the business ventures.
At the moment, there is no involvement by the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) in any business ventures but if the laws are reviewed, then this can make changes and allow the government to be involved by means of becoming shareholders and also paying tax that business ventures also pay, he said.
The taxation policies would see significant change in the behavior of the tax contributors in the business sector and government and that is healthy to the growth of the economy of Bougainville, he said.
