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| Sir Nagora Bogan will adrress the Australian National University on Thursday, December 8, 2016 |
The independent Tax Review Committee (TRC) established by
the Government of PNG recently completed a comprehensive review of the
country’s tax system involving extensive and transparent stakeholder
consultation over the course of two years. This culminated in two volumes of
reports (inclusive of significant economic and tax reform recommendations)
which were formally presented to the PNG Government in November, 2015.
The final report highlighted the high risks of PNG’s
overdependence on the extractive sector and its vulnerability to the cyclical
vagaries of global commodities pricing and recommended a ‘paradigm shift’ in
the governance, management and stimulation of sustainable economic development.
PNG’s vulnerability has become pronounced in recent months with the sudden drop
in the oil price resulting in fiscal distress, lack of foreign exchange, and
economic slowdown.
PNG is at a precarious crossroads and tax reform provides an
opportunity for a strategic transformation. The report provides some realistic
and practical policy, legal, institutional, and structural reforms to mitigate
economic risk and vulnerability by diversifying the economic base to more
sustainable sectors like agriculture, forestry, fisheries and tourism.
Sir Nagora Bogan, KBE, is Chancellor of the University of
Technology, Chairman of the Papua New Guinea Tax panel of experts. He began his
career with the PNG Taxation Office and during the 1980s and 1990s took a
leading role in modernising tax administration in PNG. From 1991-1995, he was
non-salaried Chairman of the London-based Commonwealth Association of Tax
Administrators and from 1996 to 2002 Papua New Guinea’s Ambassador to the
United States of America with concurrent accreditation as Ambassador to Mexico
and High Commissioner to Canada. He served as Chairman of the Nambawan Super
Fund Limited for more than a decade and is a director or board member of a
number of PNG and regional corporations.
The seminar is presented as part of the Development Policy
Centre’s PNG Project, which receives funding from the Australian Aid Program
through the Pacific Governance and Leadership Precinct
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