Minister fomr Finance Thomas Opa has clarified that the K850 million royalty trust funds for landowners of the PNG LNG Project are not from 2025 Budget appropriations and not GOPNG funds.
He said the monies belong to the landowners of multi-billion dollar PNG LNG Project.
“Since royalties under PNG LNG was paid by ExxonMobil, no monies were paid to any LO nominated company,” Mr Opa explained.
“All monies were kept by Bank of PNG as Trust Account and signatory to the trust deeds are the Secretary for Petroleum and Secretary for Finance as signatories to these monies.
“These monies have not attracted any interest at all and the LOs have actually lost income of up to half a billion kina if they had received these funds and invested in Treasury Bills.
“This is the opportunity costs and loss to the LOs. Now that the funds have been released to their LO companies, they can invest in Treasury Bills and earn interests. For example, for every K1 Billion, you can earn between K60 million to K80 Million per year in T Bills. Multiply these in compound interest for the last 7 or 8 years and the LOs have lost big time. “Again, it is the right thing to do and there is really nothing for anyone to talk about. This is not public funds appropriated through budget for anyone to cry about. It is royalty money rightfully belonging to the LOs and they rightfully deserve it,” Minister Opa said.