Pruaitch says ITCS is another money hoarding tactic
BY FRANKLIN KOLMA
Opposition Leader Patrick Pruaitch claims that the recently expanded infrastructure tax credit scheme was another money grabbing scheme by the government.
He said that the scheme was an exercise in negligence on the government’s part and that it only served to undermine good governance while heightening selfish gains of certain autocratic members of government.
These statements were declared to be grossly misleading by govern-ment when contacted for comments yesterday. Mr Pruaitch said that it was a myth that the ITCS enabled the national government “to build infrastructure without the need for an appropriation” because future government tax revenues were being raided to make up for the government’s incapacity to adequately plan and build infrastructure.
“These are flawed initiatives that will weaken capacity building within the national government, encourage misappropriation and weaken the government’s ability to manage its financial affairs, which is in a woeful state with record revenues existing alongside record levels of public debt and unpaid government bills.”
He said that it was troubling that the revised guidelines had wrongly equated accessible or taxable reve-nue with a company’s gross sales revenue.
“It is amazing that National Planning Minister Richard Maru and the Department of National Planning are not even aware of how the ITCS has worked in the past and how it will work in the future,” he said.
National Planning Minister Richard Maru said that he would respond in due course.
“When the original ITCS was implemented 27 years ago, it was designed to allow mining and petroleum companies to build important public infrastructure in remote areas where these companies operated.”
He said the original ITCS scheme implemented in 1992 made a lot of sense because mining projects like Ok Tedi and Porgera were able to build public infrastructure, mostly with the use of local contractors who were helped to upgrade their skills and become effective locally-owned small and medium enterprises.
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