THE Farmers and Settlers Association has made a submission to the Minister for Finance and Rural Development to look into the increase of charges in non-tax service and fee for agriculture sector especially.
President of the Association Wilson Thompson said stevedoring charges and fees at the wharves in PNG are much higher than the other countries.
In a Whatsapp message to agriculture stakeholders and businesses, Mr Thompson said; “We are facing so many fees increases here and there and this continues the barrage of fees charged when the country is facing the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic but more importantly our agriculture sector is affected including decreasing production and lack of foreign currency.”
“We have done a comparative analysis of wharfage charges I n Malaysia and PNG and it is sad that PNG charges 3 to 3.5 times more than Malaysia.
“In PNG exported commodities are facing extra charges at wharves where stevedore services now run under the monopoly of SPICT have seen an opportunity to make some money, camouflaged as the safety charge.
“The trigger for this charge is a weight accuracy that is impractical and not workable which is simply out of line with regional and global standards
“While the government seems to say Agriculture and SME is supported with credit and price support and that we need to manufacture or export more, the government seems to miss its own objectives by also applying counterproductive measures such as an increase in non-tax charges and fees in some cases 500 to 1,000 percent of input costs that will only increase the cost of production,” Mr Thompson said.
Surcharge has been applied on vehicles and farm machineries and business trucks and also on fossil fuel that contribute to increased production costs.
Then when these items already have increased price and are going out the farming areas and businesses, the freight charges are added yet again. Apart from fuel and transportation registration we have stevedoring charges applied again as safety fee.
The government or its policy officers so not realize that the higher costs for producers, processors and exporters will be passed on to the growers or farmers and producers and overseas customers of PNG products.
In a year, if our costs constantly add up and become too high, PNG will be flagged as too expensive and will easily be bypassed for future business investments and source from other countries that provide a cheaper and affordable offer, Mr Thompson said.