The collection of Goods and Services Tax has been configured into the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS).
This was made possible by the launching of the GST Section 65A by the Minister for Finance and Rural Development Sir John Pundari in partnership with the Internal Revenue Commission (IRC) on 12 April, 2021 at the Apec Haus, Port Moresby.
Sir John said this is a very important program in harnessing the financial technology to make our work easier.
‘‘This program going forward will ensure transparency, accountability and honest tax returns back to the Government,’’ he said.
He said the challenge is on everyone to do an honest return and encouraged everyone to do the right thing.
Finance Secretary Dr Ken Ngangan during the launching highlighted a few reforms that the Department have undertaken in the public finance management space.
Ngangan thanked the IRC Commissioner and his team for their involvement in the reforms that the Department is under taking.
‘‘We also look forward to take on the responsibilities of collecting tax from the provinces and districts. The partnership with IRC is important to make our work easier and collect revenue for the State,’’ he said.
Tax report will be also generated by IFMS and together with remittance will be submitted to Internal Revenue Commission (IRC) on a monthly basis.
On behalf of the National Departments, the Department of Finance will do monthly remittance and the report to facilitate a full audit of all suppliers.
The IFMS GST tax roll out to be phased in for the National Departments, Statutory Authorities and the Sub-National Government.
IRC Commissioner General Sam Koim thanked the technical team who has worked very hard to make this event successful as it is a challenging environment to collect taxes in this country.
He thanked Minister for Finance and Rural Development for his receptiveness to explore new ways of revenue collection, Secretary Dr Ken Ngangan and officers to deliver this project.
‘’The launching brings this arrangement to a new height and introduces a lot of efficiency and cohesiveness. It sets the tone for the path we want to embark on-to move away from laborious methods of collection by investing in technology,’’ he said.
‘‘We will have 36 National Government Departments that currently use IFMS to participate as part of the phrase 1 next month, followed by Statutory Authorities in the second and Sub-National entities in phrase 3.’’
The IFMS configuration will be switched on May 1, 2021 and we will be using the balance of this month to carryout awareness and issue appropriate notices.