The National Government’s intention to increase the Corporate Income Tax on licensed banks for next year will not only have implications on the operations of commercial banks but could see a decline in investments in the banking sector. That’s the message from the Executive Director of the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Institute of National Affairs (INA) Mr. Paul Barker, who was skeptical about the increase in this particular tax. “We’re wanting to have competition, we’re wanting to retain existing banks or attracting new banks to be functioning here. If we add to the fees and charges imposed by the government, then we’re not attracting players into the banking sector.” “It seems to run counter to the government’s own objectives because we do need to roll out PNG’s banking and financial services and roll out financial inclusion to the wider public,” said Mr. Barker. The increase in the tax from 30% to 45% payable by commercial backs starting next year, is expected to raise K240milliom in 2023 to go towards funding vital core services, but Barker said it goes against what the government wants to see happen in the banking sector. Meanwhile, this increase in the Corporate Income Tax came about so to gradually do away with the Additional Company Tax that was introduced this year, which has a baseline value of K190million per year for all banks holding more than 40% market share. This increase in the Corporate Income Tax will come into effect on the 1st of January, 2023.  

The National Government’s moved to increase the Corporate Income Tax on licensed banks for next year has met some skeptical responses from the business community and independent Think- Tanks like the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Institute of National Affairs (INA) PNG INA’s Executive Director Mr. Paul Barker said that this further increase in tax will have implications on the banks and its customers and clients going forward, even though the government’s intention was to gain enough tax revenue to fund vital core services. The government revenue measures for tax revenue in the 2023 National Budget will see the increase in the rate of Corporate Income Tax from 30% to 45% payable by commercial banks. From 1st January 2023, the rate of company tax will increase. This is expected to raise K240milliom in 2023 to go towards supporting the increased spending on law and order and infrastructure, and for more teachers and nurses. The state will closely consult with the banking industry in the first half of 2023 and consider if a different type of tax, such as an additional profit tax, may be more appropriate from 2024 onwards while still raising the required revenues. However, Mr. Barker said that this could impact the banks’ clients, customers and entities that are also getting revenue from the banks. “At the end of the day, it restrains the banks from investing and expending services into rural areas. It restrains banks in cross subsidizing the engagement with smaller branches or investing further in improved services for clients, increasing financial inclusion, and results in the banks sustaining or even increasing bank charges,” said Mr. Barker. Meanwhile, the change came about so to gradually do away with the Additional Company Tax that was introduced this year, which has a baseline value of K190million per year for all banks holding more than 40% market share. This was change due to public feedback and as a result the State decided to change the form of the tax introduced on the banking sector

The government has increased the Capital Investment Budget for 2023 as it focuses on ticking off its big ticket items before the country reaches its 50th Independence Anniversary in 2025. The Minister for Finance and Planning, Mr. Rainbo Paita, when giving his speech on the 2023 National Budget, thanked the Treasurer for the increase in the investment budget compared to the 2022's Capital Investment Budget because it will ensure the department and its partners work towards achieving them. Minister Paita explained that the aggregate Capital Investment Budget for 2023 stands at K9.7billion, which is an increase of K1billion above the 2022 original appropriation of K8.7billion. That is a 12% increase from the 2022 investment budget. "The increase in the capital investment budget is basically trying to manage how we can tick off big ticket items," said the minister. "The 2023 Capital Investment Budget is a critical component of the 2023 National Budget and it is important for me to outline the key investments of the Marape/Rosso government going forward." Minister Paita said one of these big ticket items, a flagship program of the government, is the Connect PNG program. The program aims to link every remote area to the urban centers and urban centers to the rest of the country. He said its a 20 year program and aims to reach 100% connectivity of Papua New Guinea (PNG) by 2040. That is why the minister said that a total of K1billion was appropriated to Connect PNG in next years budget, which is an accumulative total from a combination of government direct investment, development partners and government counterpart obligations. Another big ticket item on the government's list is the PNG University of Medicine and Health Sciences, a planned full upgrade of the University of Papua New Guinea School of Medicine and Health Sciences. This project is a priority investment of this government and we have committed K50million for this project in 2023, said Minister Paita. Also under the Health sector, is the proposed new hospital for the Central province. I am also pleased to announce that we will commence the construction of a 395- bed provincial hospital for the Central province with K50million allocated in the 2023 budget. That K50million is from the K100million committed by the government to the development of provincial hospitals. The other thing is the education interventions with K226.7million allocated in the Capital Investment Budget, of which K126million was allocated to the higher education sector, particularly for Teachers and Nursing colleges. This also includes support for School of Excellences and TVET. The Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and the Pacific Maritime Industrial Zone (PMIZ) are also items on that list. The governments investments in these projects stand at K77million, derived from the K689.3million allocated for the Economic sector. The governments Land Partnership program also received a commitment of K156million in the 2023 Capital Investment Budget. The government will aggressively pursue unlocking the full potential of our land resources, increasing bankable land for investment, productive utilization and creating more employment and economic opportunities, Paita added. Minister Paita said another flagship program is the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) with K219million committed by the state for it. For the Agriculture sector and Commodities support, Paita said the government injected funding of K144million to the Commodity sector and a further K100million being locked in for state equity to support state participation in large scale agriculture investments. A further K33million was also allocated for commodity roads. Meanwhile, the other key areas of investments allocated funds for in the Capital Investment Budget for 2023 are in the Provincial and District Infrastructure, Law and Order, Government Office Precinct, Hydro Development and Energy Development, Information and Communication Technology, and Public Private Partnership (PPP). Paita said the Capital Investment Budget provides every opportunity for growing the economy for a better PNG and with that, he called on all government stakeholders at all levels to align and commit their development plans and to work towards reaching the desired outcome. Development partners, civil society organisations and the private sector are also encouraged to continue their support and complete the governments efforts in achieving its priorities. He concluded that it is important that PNG's partners are not working in isolation of the government's priorities, systems and processes.

Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey has finally handed down the 2023 National Budget of K24.5 billion, another deficit budget with greater focus on more investments to improve the economy and generate more achievements before the country’s 50th Independence in 2025. The money plan, which was deferred from last week is the largest to be handed down by any government and is a slight increase from this year’s K22.2 billion budget. The Treasurer announced that the 2023 expenditure of K24.5 billion is an increase of 10.8% increase from the 2022 budget with a revenue estimate of K19.6 billion, which the Treasurer said was an achievement in itself for the government. "This is a significant budget for this government to heighten the important achievements gained and initiating an intense pace towards greater economic growth for Papua New Guinea, as we head into the 50th Golden Jubilee year in 2025, which is only three years to go." "We are focusing on investments that will unlock the great economic potential for our country, especially the rural areas, which allows our people to have access, and also participate fairly in national building. We are also focused on infrastructure investment in rural areas to enable better service delivery." Meanwhile, the key priority areas of the government continues to get good allocations in 2023 Budget with health getting about K1.7billion, education K1.3billion and law and justice K1.1billion.

A day at the lawn today turned into an excellent one as over 100 athletes from 5 different Lawn bowling clubs converged on the Bisini Lawn Bowling Club to determine the best. President of the Bisini Lawn Bowling Club (BLBC), Andy Agowah stated that this is the biggest National event that they have held so far, thanks to the sponsorship of Vodafone PNG, who pledged K30, 000 to sponsor the event. Agowah said he was pleased with the turnout of participants and is hopeful that this event can lead to many gaining interest in the sport. “I am happy with the turnout today, not only do you have the elderly here at the club, but it is also good to see the young ones taking part in the event,” Agowah said. He also proudly announced that next year the club will be implementing their youth development program. The program will be targeting schools in and around the area to further help develop interest in the sport. “So next year we will be focussing on putting our coaches and trainers through to schools in and around the Bisini area to introduce the concept in PE lessons. So, we will be bringing them down to the lawn to let them have a feel of what bowling is like,” the president said. Agowah added that this is part of their corporate plan to introduce the concept of Lawn Bowling to the young ones in the hopes that they can generate interest and grow the game. He stated that it may be tough because Rugby League and other main sports have a huge following in the country but based on the turnout of youths taking part in the event today, the future looks bright for the sport.

The residents of Port Moresby city who are already tired of the ongoing power disruptions currently experienced, have been assured that the supply of power will improve very soon. Minister for State Enterprises William Duma said the matter should be resolved when the Kanudi and Moitaka gas fired power stations come back online after they were closed because of a major refurbishment of the machines at Rauna and the Sirinumu Dam. Duma explained that the situation started when PNG Power Limited decided to undergo a major refurbishment and renovation program for its facilities up at the Sirinumu Dam and Rauna in the mountains of Sogeri in Central province. “These systems were built by the Australians in the 1960s and since independence, there were no major refurbishment programs for those important assets and the risk is if there was no such major refurbishment work being carried out, machines will completely breakdown and PNG Power would then be required to buy new machineries and that would take years.” He said PNG Power went ahead with this decision because it was comforted by the fact that the Independent Power Producers (IPP) like Niu Power and Dirio, would supply the Port Moresby power grid and with ExxonMobil also providing 25megawatts, PNG Power saw no major disruptions during the time when the refurbishment and maintenance is progressing. However, Duma said ExxonMobil had to withdraw its services due to several reasons, leaving a gap of 25megawatts to be supplied to the city’s power grid. “At the same time on the basis that Exxon was going to provide power as well as power from the two independent power producers, PNG Power also made the decision to close down two important power station at Kanudi and Moitaka,” Duma further explained. He said that when ExxonMobil pulled out, PNG Power had to make every attempt to re-open Kanudi and Moitaka power stations. But the problem now was that when gas fired stations like these are shutdown, it will take some time to bring them back online. “It was a decision that also reflected on the competence of the people at PNG Power, unfortunately. So, we’ve had to fly experts from Korea to rehabilitate those two stations and I can assure the people of Port Moresby that Moitaka will be back in full production in two weeks’ time and Kanudi will be back before Christmas,” said the minister. Minister Duma said all this in response to questions from the Member for Obura-Wonenara John Boito in parliament today on matters relating to electricity services in the country.

Two Port Moresby based Australian Football League (AFL) clubs will have their future in the Moni Plus AFL competition decided upon by the Port Moresby AFL Association after committing separate on field offences during this year’s competition. The Association President Mr. Douglas Lai said the two clubs are the Gordons Kokofas and the Lamana Dockers. These two clubs were involved in separate on field brawls after their matches during the finals round. One of the incidents saw officials, including the president, attacked by the players and their supporters. The president explained that once a club is suspended from a season, all its teams in the Reserve and Senior grades along with the Women’s Division, will not be participating during that season. However, the individual players are allowed to move to other clubs to play for them. “We will meet sometime in January 2023 to discuss this matter before the women’s competition starts because we are looking at starting early next year,” said the president. He said they need to get this decision on whether to suspend the two clubs form the competition out of the way before the start of the new season. Meanwhile, Mr. Lai said they are also considering allowing the Taurama Suns club back into the Moni Plus AFL Competition after the club too was banned from the competition for over five years. He said that this will also be discussed in the meeting in January.

The Police High Command in the city of Port Moresby is currently meeting with high ranking officers from the PNG Defence Force to try to establish facts surround an alleged police attack on a soldiers. It was alleged that the PNGDF personnel was abducted and later attacked by members of the police Mobile Squad on Saturday. Talks are currently on at the Boroko police station between NCD/Central Commander ACP Anthony Wagambi Junior and the senior members of the PNG DF to determine the facts behind the alleged incident. Meanwhile, the situation is still tense at and around the Boroko police station after angry members of the PNGDF at Murray Barracks fronting up there in the morning demanding police to explain why their fellow soldier was attacked.

Passengers traveling in and out of Port Moresby can now breathe easy with the Jackson International Airport re-open for normal operations by 1pm this afternoon after it was closed by the National Airport Corporation (NAC) over aviation security breaches. NAC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. Rex Kiponge said the closure of the Jackson Domestic Terminal was due to the breach of aviation safety laws by members of the police force when they were in the process of arresting him on matters relating to the operations of one of the national airports in the country. “About 17 police personnel entered illegally and unlawfully at the main point of entry and onto the area where the aircrafts were parked last night,” said Mr. Kiponge. He said that this breach resulted in the contamination of the airport facility and as a result the NAC took action, as per the international aviation safety standards and regulations, to stop all operation of the airport until a thorough security check was made to ensure everything was safe and secure for the airlines, airline staff and airport staff and the traveling public before the airport is re-opened for business. After a thorough check by NAC security team (AVSEC) and the staff, Mr. Kiponge was pleased to inform the public that everything was safe and that the notice to airman to stop flights into Jackson International Airport lapsed at 12pm, meaning that normal flights resumed at 1pm. Meanwhile, Mr. Kiponge also clarified that the closure of the airport was purely due to the breach in the Civil Aviation Safety Act and not because of his arrest. He also clarified that only the domestic terminal was closed and not the international terminal. Mr. Kiponge also said he was not happy with the approach of the police in this matter and that NAC will be filing a complaint with police on this breach of aviation safety laws.

The Jacksons International terminal in the nation's capital remains closed as of this morning after police allegedly breached aviation safety laws while in the process of arresting the CEO of National Airports Corporation Rex Kiponge. It is understood that the CEO was arrested last night, questioned and then released on bail. A press conference is expected today by NAC to update on the situation. Whil this is going on, no flights in and out of Port Moresby City. The ones affected the most now are traveling public, the passengers especially.

The Ok Tedi mine in the Western province, although its mining life is said to have 10 more years to go, it still has enough resources that could see the mine continue operating for three more decades further generating revenue for the country and the province. According to the Ok Tedi Mining Limited (OTML) Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. Musje Werror, the Ok Tedi mine has been operating for 38 years and the facilities are getting old. Therefore, the focus now is on re-investing in the business in terms of putting money into the processing facilities and re-fleeting the mine equipment, so to take the mine further into the future. He said the life of the mine is within a decade, which means closure in 2032. But they want to extend operations beyond that date and that will now depend on who well the company manages certain important matters going forward. “We still have 200million tons of resource that is still going to be in the ground post 2032 and that can take us well into the 2040s, even 2050s,” he said. He further stressed that the mine will not close in the near term because there is still life for the project going into the future, but the challenge now is in the managing of the environmental impacts, which is how well OTML treats and manages the waste from the mine. Therefore, he said that in this current mine life period, they will be looking at the environment solutions that can further extend the mine life further beyond 2032.

P&O Maritime Logistics continues to contribute to the training and employment of local maritime professionals through its employment and training program. This was stressed by the Head of Australia and PNG P&O Maritime Logistics Mr. John Connor, who said that P&O has trained so many Papua New Guineans for maritime careers. “In more recent times, we have sponsored 14 candidates through our own training program and a collaborative program that is running in conjunction with the Ok Tedi Development Foundation (OTDF),” said Mr. Connor. He added that within this program, P&O also strongly encourages interested young females who want to be seafarers to enquire and join the program. “In addition to our cadet program, we have also had students pass through to PNG Maritime Collage in Madang who undertook additional training to improve their qualification and be promoted within P&O seafaring team.” He said with these training programs and the fleet operations, the maritime logistics company continues to make a significant contribution to the growth of maritime capability of Papua New Guinea, which he said is an essential element of trade in a growing country. “We further look to expand the benefits of this programs by providing our PNG crews, which currently make up 95% of our team, the opportunity to serve further afield in our other fleet units, so they gain exposer to our international operation and have the opportunity to develop professionally and personally.”