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PAPUA
NEW GUINEA RAINFOREST CAMPAIGN NEWS
Papua
New Guinea Loggers Cost the Country - Time to Shut Them Down
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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org
http://forests.org/pngforest.html -- PNG
Rainforest Portal
http://forests.org/pngtoktok/ -- Discuss PNG
Rainforests
11/18/00
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY
The
plunder of Papua New Guinea's rainforests continues unabated.
The
following article highlights the fact that very few taxes are
generated
due to systematic tax evasion. Given
the facts that 1) the
industrial
log export industry pays essentially no taxes and provides
minimal
other economic benefits, 2) that ecosystems and their
functions
are declining causing widespread hardship, and 3) the
diminished
forests have less potential to support development and
local
needs in the future; the PNG log industry operates at a net
loss
for the country. After 15 years of
efforts to reform the
industry,
it is time to acknowledge it is irredeemable.
The current
Papua
New Guinea logging industry is bad for the country and must be
halted
and dismantled. In coming months,
Forests.org will be
pursuing
a campaign to stop and ban industrial log export from Papua
New
Guinea and move towards community based, certified production.
We hope
you will join us in this exciting campaign.
Expect to hear
more
soon.
g.b.
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RELAYED
TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Logging industry bad tax evaders
Source: Copyright, 1999, Post-Courier Online (Papua
New Guinea)
Date: November 10, 2000
THE
Internal Revenue Commission should vigorously pursue logging
companies
that do not pay taxes, it has been recommended to the
National
Government.
Prime
Minister Sir Mekere Morauta said yesterday that out of the 27
logging
companies operating in Papua New Guinea, only 14 had paid
corporate
income tax.
"This
is despite the fact that many of these companies have been
operating
for more than five years," the Bogan tax review committee
said in
its report.
"One
company has been operating for more than eight years without
posting
a taxable income. The 14 tax paying companies paid a total of
only
K21.7 million throughout their corporate lives. On average, the
logging
companies pay only K143,000 in corporate income tax each
year.''
The
report said that these data posed the question why some logging
companies
had not reported profits for many years? And if so, why has
the IRC
not pursued these companies to see whether there has been any
transfer
pricing, using their powers under the Income Tax Act?
The
committee recommended that logging companies should not pay the
value
added tax, and that the sale and export of unprocessed logs be
treated
in the same manner as any other product for the purposes of
VAT,
which would mean zero rated for VAT purposes when sold overseas.
The
committee recommended that the excise tax on gaming machines be
reduced
from 150 per cent to 70 per cent.
It said
the distribution of gross profits from gaming be amended so
that 62
per cent be paid into consolidated revenue as opposed to the
current
60 per cent, 6 per cent to the provincial trust account
(currently
same), 24 per cent paid to site owners as opposed to the
current
22 per cent, 8 per cent to operators against the current 4
per
cent.
The
committee found that people who played poker machines paid about
K105
million a year.
###RELAYED
TEXT ENDS###
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