Forest Minister got it wrong over the great timber heist
11 March 2016
EFFREY DADEMO | Act Now PNG
AN attack by Papua New Guinea’s Forest Minister on a report alleging the logging industry is failing to pay hundreds of millions of kina in tax is full of errors.
The Forest Minister Douglas Torumiesa’s statements are full of inaccuracies and must be challenged.
The Great Timber Heist, a report from the Oakland Institute in the United States, detailed how major foreign-owned logging companies operating in PNG consistently avoid paying corporate tax by claiming they do not make a profit.
The Oakland Institute suggested the companies overstated expenses and understated income to make it appear they operated at a loss year after year.
This used financial misreporting deprives PNG of hundreds of millions of kina in vital revenue.
The Forest Minister attacked the report, saying the companies pay log export taxes and the findings were inaccurate and irresponsible.
We really question whether the Forest Minister has read The Great Timber Heist.
If he has read it, how does he not understand the difference between log export taxes and corporate taxes?
Does the Minister know that neither SGS PNG Ltd consultants nor the PNG Forest Authority check the timber prices the companies declare?
Does he understand that it defies logic for a company to keep doing the same thing year after year if it never makes any profits?
The Forest Minister also claimed that 97% of logging licenses are held by landowner companies and the PNG Forest Authority has no role in the SABL land grab.
But nearly all log exports as recorded in SGS reports are done by foreign owned companies, and the logging in SABL areas is done under clearance authorities approved and issued by the Forest Authority.
Act Now! is calling on the government to carry out an urgent investigation into financial reporting by the logging industry.
The Forest Minister needs to do something concrete rather than coming out once in a while explaining himself everytime criticisms and bad reports appear in the media concerning the forest sector. What are some "extreme or concrete" actions (something that we can see and read about) taken by the Forest Ministry to arrest these deep seated problems with the forest industry amidst all these abuse. Wokim sampla kain samting long soim pipol olsem lidaman blong mipla stap long protektim kantri na bus graun blong pipol na kantri blong mipla Papua Niugini. Wai na mipla wok long harim na ridim seim nius ikam yet.
Posted by: Raymond Sigimet | 11 March 2016 at 11:33 PM