Papua New Guinea: Mapping Exercise

PNGIRC Taxpayer Mapping Exercise

In Port Moresby, six teams of IRC officers have embarked on a two-week taxpayer mapping exercise, where they will walk the full extent of the city limits to capture and record, accurate and reliable taxpayer information from as many businesses as possible both registered and unregistered.

Similar exercises have been successfully completed in other provincial centres in the country over the past two years; the exercise is now being implemented in the nation’s capital.

The main aim of the exercise is to update taxpayer profiles that are far outdated and unreliable. In 2020 it was reported that 50% of taxpayers are either not known or cannot be identified. A number of issues contribute to the inaccurate and outdated taxpayer information among these are: 

Ø  Many of the profiles showed inaccurate residential addresses.

Ø  Taxpayers were found to be selective over certain modes of communication compared to others e.g., email over letters and mobile phones over landlines.

Ø  TINs are issued for temporary purposes although the taxpayer may not be carrying on a taxable activity.

Ø  A growing number of illegal phoenix activities were being created where a new company is created to continue the business of another company that has been deliberately liquidated to avoid paying taxes.

The Commissioner General, Mr Sam Koim has warned that any TIN that is left unclear, without clear identification of the owner and his/her details at the end of the taxpayer mapping exercise will be deregistered; further-more the banks will be notified to close all accounts held by the unidentified/inactive TIN owners, or those who could not be identified as doing business.

“Correct registration is fundamental to IRC’s revenue generation system. The objective is to make sure that the taxpayer data base is accurate and up to date. Have all taxpayers contactable by reliable mobile phone numbers and email addresses to enable automation of generic messages, etc. in the future. TINs will not be issued to applicants with doubtful or inadequate proof of identity. “

This exercise will also prepare IRC for the migration of ‘clean’ taxpayer data from the old system to the implementation of the new Integrated Tax Administration Systems (ITAS). 

The Mapping exercise will run for ten days, from the 13th to 23rd June, and will cover the entire capital city of Port Moresby.

By - Marilyn Watuna, PNG Internal Revenue Commission, Papua New Guinea