All roads to maximise the returns of revenue for Papua New Guinea need to be looked at by all the members in Parliament in their respective departments.
Minister for Petroleum Kerenga Kua appealed to all the ministers to use the two and half years left of this parliament term to look at areas that will increase revenue streams.
“If we are to develop this country properly we need money. We need to look at all the roads available inside petroleum and mining, forestry, fisheries and even in police, (the) way for collecting spot fines and access cards to collect fines for roads, instead of waiting for court,” he said.
“All departments must look at how to raise and increase revenue so that we can look at the demands; money is short all the time, look at it and where they can contribute to increase revenue.”
Kua was responding to questions raised by MP for North Fly James Donald on petroleum legislations in the country.
“For the petroleum sector, we will not look at it in a arbitrator way at the millions of bucks (kina), involved in petroleum industry. We will look at the best technical advisers around the world to advise us on models that exist to enable landowners, provincial administrations and host nations to maximise benefits to come back to the country.
“We recognise that our forefathers when they wrote the Constitution said natural resources we have we must use wisely and promote sovereignty of the country, and use in fostering and growing self reliance,” Kua said.
“This is in the Constitution. How will we use the resources on our land and the laws to create and build up more self reliance, and in doing that you have the sovereignty of the land and respect and trust of other nations. That is one of the key agendas in the department.
“We need support of parliament so that we can push that through and turn it to a law to increase revenue to our country through petroleum.”
Kua said the government is seriously looking at reforming the current legislations governing the petroleum sector.
“Petroleum and mining have an important role to play in this vision of the government to take back PNG. So the work has started. We have started and will look at Papua Gas Agreement, not to revoke it, that must be made clear, this is a new government, the contract has been signed, we want to satisfy ourselves by doing an internal audit that will satisfy the requirements of the law and then we can take whatever necessary steps after that,” he said.
“Once the contract is signed, it is binding to us all unless you can demonstrate fraud or some cases like that.
“One of the elements of fraud is non-compliance with statutory requirements court has said that If someone has not complied with the statutory requirements that is one type of fraud.
“We need to tick that box to satisfy the new government, satisfy the people of PNG that the agreement is in order and can proceed to implementation, if not, if there is another way we can look at.
“At the back of that, we can proceed to look at the current state of the law, there a lot of concerns coming from PNG and I am one of those that have raised concerns. We think that current legislative framework we have has not allowed us to maximise returns back to PNG,” he said.
SOURCE: POST COURIER/PACNEWS
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Minister for Petroleum Kerenga Kua appealed to all the ministers to use the two and half years left of this parliament term to look at areas that will increase revenue streams.
“All departments must look at how to raise and increase revenue so that we can look at the demands; money is short all the time, look at it and where they can contribute to increase revenue.”
Kua was responding to questions raised by MP for North Fly James Donald on petroleum legislations in the country.
“For the petroleum sector, we will not look at it in a arbitrator way at the millions of bucks (kina), involved in petroleum industry. We will look at the best technical advisers around the world to advise us on models that exist to enable landowners, provincial administrations and host nations to maximise benefits to come back to the country.
“We recognise that our forefathers when they wrote the Constitution said natural resources we have we must use wisely and promote sovereignty of the country, and use in fostering and growing self reliance,” Kua said.
“This is in the Constitution. How will we use the resources on our land and the laws to create and build up more self reliance, and in doing that you have the sovereignty of the land and respect and trust of other nations. That is one of the key agendas in the department.
“We need support of parliament so that we can push that through and turn it to a law to increase revenue to our country through petroleum.”
Kua said the government is seriously looking at reforming the current legislations governing the petroleum sector.
“Petroleum and mining have an important role to play in this vision of the government to take back PNG. So the work has started. We have started and will look at Papua Gas Agreement, not to revoke it, that must be made clear, this is a new government, the contract has been signed, we want to satisfy ourselves by doing an internal audit that will satisfy the requirements of the law and then we can take whatever necessary steps after that,” he said.
“Once the contract is signed, it is binding to us all unless you can demonstrate fraud or some cases like that.
“One of the elements of fraud is non-compliance with statutory requirements court has said that If someone has not complied with the statutory requirements that is one type of fraud.
“We need to tick that box to satisfy the new government, satisfy the people of PNG that the agreement is in order and can proceed to implementation, if not, if there is another way we can look at.
“At the back of that, we can proceed to look at the current state of the law, there a lot of concerns coming from PNG and I am one of those that have raised concerns. We think that current legislative framework we have has not allowed us to maximise returns back to PNG,” he said.
SOURCE: POST COURIER/PACNEWS
Next :