Soon to hit the market in the country is a new product that was launched yesterday by South Pacific (SP) Brewery dubbed the Heineken 0.0 (zero, zero). SP Managing Director Mr. Ed Weggemans, said this new product is a non- alcoholic beverage, meaning it has zero alcohol percentage in it. “Today South Pacific Brewery is launching Heineken 0.0. It is a malt lager, its real beer with no alcohol,” said the Managing Director. Mr. Weggemans said the product has had huge successes in all markets where it was launched before and fulfilled a consumer need that is driven by great innovation and brewery techniques. He said SP expects to replicate this success here in the Papua New Guinea (PNG) market. The distribution of this new product in PNG is also part of SP Brewery’s bold move to address issues affecting the society, such as promoting responsible consumption and choices, addressing harmful use of alcoholic products, and promoting moderate consumption of alcohol. “The non-alcohol beer segment is non- existent in Papua New Guinea, our ambition is to link the category development here with a premium proposition from a brand that consumers are proud to be seen with,” said Mr. Weggemans. “We take our responsibility extremely seriously and although Heineken 0.0 does not contain alcohol, we do not target consumers below the legal drinking age.” SP Brewery now joins 59 other Heineken operating companies who have introduced this zero-alcohol product in the markets. The Heineken 0.0 will soon be distributed to shops, bars, and restaurants in both Lae and Port Moresby cities. [caption id="attachment_14342" align="aligncenter" width="707"] Pictured: L to R, Sergey Penchev is SP Brewery's Marketing Manager posing with Mr Ed Weggemans, the Managing Director. [/caption]

The working class will continue to be taxed highly for personal income tax for some time until the country’s economy picks up. This is because the reduction of the personal income tax rate for the working class at this time would be impossible as the country's development and recurrent budget depends heavily on it. That's the response from the Prime Minister (PM) James Marape to the Member for North Fly district James Donald in parliament, when the member asked about possible ways to reduce the rate of personal income tax at a time when the country is in a bad economic state induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. “What I think is that we should cut down the tax for personal income tax for everyone, reduce it down to half and what we can do is we can put up a mechanism to control the collection and collect the envelope, because the moment you cut tax you give the purchasing power to the people. Our people will have enough money to spend,” said the member for North Fly. The PM in response said the personal income tax has gone past corporate tax and the GST (Goods and Services Tax) over time to be the leading tax revenue source for the country. “It means that our workers are now supporting the country; however, at this stage we cannot afford to make this very critical call as yet,” said the PM. “The demand for money to service our development aspirations as well as recurrent aspirations for us in the country is almost at seventeen to nineteen billion Kina each year, but the actual money we collect in our country is about ten billion Kina. So, it will be irresponsible for me to just say drop the personal income tax.” “When our economy is bigger and corporate tax picks us up and the economy is expended, then we can look into areas to cut our personal income tax. If we reduce it, then the revenue envelope that we collect around ten or eleven billion Kina will come down,” said Marape. However, Marape said there are initiatives being taken by the Internal Revenue Commission (IRC) and the government to ensure the tax burden is shared to with the corporate sector as well so that in the near future, the reduction of income tax can be a possibility. He said the IRC has started reforming and will bring everybody into the tax radar, so that those companies that have been avoiding paying tax, will be ordered to start paying their corporate taxes. This will then level the playing field where the tax burden can be shared.

A new national health plan will be launched in the coming months that would address the woes in the health sector, including the issue of the shortage of medical work force in the country. Health Minister Jelta Wong said the government through this plan would double the work force through training and certifying them to work. Minister Wong made this statement when responding to questions from the member for Pomio, Mr. Elias Kapavore, on this matter in parliament today. Kapavore said Papua New Guinea (PNG) has about five hundred medical officers today servicing the public health system. “We have a population of about 8 to 9 million people in the country. The UPNG school of medicine can only produce up to forty to fifty medical officers every year and this hasn’t changed since 1959.” Mr. Kapavore said with the current rate of population growth, there is a need to really beef up the medical workforce in the country. “Apart from medical officers, we still have a critical shortage of human resource in the country, in other categories of health workers. At the moment, according to WHO statistics, we have a ratio of approximately five health workers serving a population of about ten thousand. He added that with new health facilities, health centres and aid posts being established, there must be a focus to put in medical officers in these facilities to serve the people. Minister Wong replied that the government has a new National Health Plan 2021- 2030 that will be released soon and will address this matter along with other issues in the health sector. “What we intend to do in the plan is to ensure that we double our workforce within our country. Whilst we are building infrastructure in the country, we’ve also put in thought our people within nursing schools,” said the minister. “That is why the bill that I will present next week is a very important bill, it’s the medical registration bill. It allows those students to be eligible to work within our country.” We also have plans together with High Education. We’ll be sitting down in the coming months to work out how we can work together to ensure that we push into the future training and skills for our people. Minister Wong said he will explain in detail when he reads his statement on the plan and the bill next week Tuesday, 17th August.

Hela Governor, Philip Undialu, commended the Mineral Resources Development Company (MRDC) Limited for the policy changes regarding the payment of royalties and dividends for landowners which allowed for transparency in the disbursement of funds. Undialu said one notable change or shift in the policy is the requirement for landowner clans to create and open their own bank accounts to enable the money to be put in the respective accounts for the people to use. “This is one big change and I appreciate the MRDC for making this happen for the landowners,” he said. The other notable change is the period of which a board chairman or director of a landowner company sits in office, which is just four years according to the governor. After that a new person will be appointed to one of those positions. “You provide good leadership; the people will trust you and you would be elected to the position after four years.” Undialu said this would ensure no individual would sit for a very long time in the position and would also be fair as the various clans can all have their own representatives elected to the positions. “The changes MRDC made is to ensure that accountability, leadership and responsibility is upon us to manage the money well,” said the governor. Governor Undialu was speaking at the payment ceremony held in Benaria in the Komo Magarima district over the weekend for the royalty and dividend payments of a combined total of K3.76million, to segments 2 and 3 landowners of the PNGLNG Pipeline license No. 4(PL4) area.

Development and service will not reach the people despite funding support unless there is peace and harmony in the community to pave way for resources to be used to improve the lives of the people. This was the direct message given by the Governor for Hela Province Philip Undialu to his people, when urging them to use the money given to them from the PNG LNG project wisely for their own benefit. Undialu, who was at the ceremony held in Benaria in the Komo Magarima district yesterday for the royalty and dividend payment to segments 2 and 3 landowners of the PNGLNG Pipeline license No. 4(PL4) area, urged the people and the leaders of warring tribes to come together, make peace and work together to improve their livelihoods through improving things likes schools, health facilities, roads infrastructures, and get into business activities. “I don’t want this money to be used to buy bullets and guns. This money is a blessing, so I want you to look at paying school fees and look at your needs,” said the governor. Undialu said this because the area continues to see a lot of tribal conflicts with a lot of lives lost over the years, but now with this huge payment, he wants the people to change and work together for what is best for everyone. Meanwhile, the total combined royalty and equity/dividend payment is about K3.76million. The Equity and dividend payment is for the period 2014 to 2016, while the royalty is for the period of 2014 to 2018. These payments follow the completion of bank account opening for each benefitting clan with the support of the Mineral Resources Development Company (MRDC), and the appointment of a director to the board of the landowner company, to pave way for payment of the benefits. The Gas Resources PNGLNG Pipeline Limited Board, later announced the approval of the combined payment to be paid to project area landowners. Of the total combined amount, 40% of total royalty and equity benefits is available to them. 30% is allocated for the Community Infrastructure Trust Fund (CITF) and another 30% is for Future Trust for investment purposes, which is a requirement of the Oil and Gas Act. Dividends for subsequent years will be paid once the audit of the accounts are completed up to the last financial year. Royalties will also be paid once they are received from State. Segments 2 and 3 covers the Benaria and Homo-Paua regions and consists of 174 benefitting clans. These areas are part of the eight segment areas, which are PNG LNG project impacted areas.

AFL PNG is going rural in Central Province to seek talent and spread the footy code through the Australian Football League (AFL) rural competition planned for various villages, starting off with the Keapara village competition. AFL PNG Senior Football Operations Manager, Mr. Rex Leka said the launching of the rural competition is also part of the initiative to teach the youngsters through the AFL Junior Development program. The program will run alongside the competitions so to get the kids and youths interested in the sport. “We aim to spread AFL to the rural areas so we can identify the raw talents and give them the opportunity to play footy in a major league,” he said. Mr. Leka said the launching for the Keapara village competition will take place tomorrow, Saturday 07th August. The village has eight teams that will be participating in their own competition. The PNG AFL Commission and the Port Moresby AFL Association are supporting this rural competition initiative and will be co- launching the rural competition tomorrow. Mr. Leka confirmed that AFL PNG will also be looking at spreading the code to the Kairuku- Hiri district next. The current focus now is on villages in the Rigo district.

Kina Securities Ltd (KSL), through Kina Bank, will be challenging the Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) decision in its Draft Determination on its proposed decline of authorization for Kina Bank to acquire Westpac PNG’s shares. Kina Bank’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. Greg Pawson, said the draft determination, which was issued by the ICCC late last week, is the first stage in a three-stage process and is largely based on feedback and objections from several organizations invited by the ICCC to respond. “Stage two of the process is a consultation session scheduled for the 11th of August. Stage three is a final submission by Westpac and KSL due 20th August.  We then anticipate a final determination by the ICCC at some point in September,” said Mr. Pawson. “We will be challenging the ICCC draft determination vehemently. We think we have a very strong proposition to increase competition and at the same time strengthen the financial services sector in PNG.” On 17th March 2021, KSL applied to the ICCC seeking authorization for its proposal to acquire 89.91% shares in Westpac PNG. The ICCC conducted public consultations on this proposed acquisition before completing its assessment. Meanwhile, ICCC Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Paulus Ain, explained in a statement that after taking into consideration KSL’s authorization application and submission, including comments from relevant stakeholders and available market information, the ICCC proposed to decline authorization for the proposed acquisition. “For the reasons outlined in its draft determination, the ICCC is not satisfied that this proposed acquisition would not have, and would not be likely to have, the effect of substantially lessening of competition in the relevant markets; and is not satisfied that the proposed acquisition will result, or will be likely to result, in such a benefit to the public that it should be authorized,” Mr. Ain said. Mr. Ain further added that the parties and other stakeholders have been given the opportunity to comment on the Draft Determination through a conference to be held on the 11th of August.

The Gerehu Magpies and the Waigani Tigers are the two teams left out of the start of the Port Moresby Australian Football League (AFL) season proper over weekend, and they may have to merge if they are to participate in this year’s competition. According to Mr. John Lavu, the Patron and Founder of the Gerehu Magpies, most of their boys have gone to play rugby union, but the remaining ones could be put together and merge with the boys from the Tigers, to form one team. Mr. Lavu said the Port Moresby AFL Association suggested this so that they can still compete this season. The President, Mr. Douglas Lai also confirmed this. He said this is one option that the association is looking at to ensure teams are given the chance to compete. “There is a possibility of merging the two teams, but if that doesn’t take place, we will get the Gerehu Magpies to join the Swans and form the A grade side with a couple of good talents we’ve seen in the Swans boys, and the rest of them can form the Reserve grade side for the Swans team for this year only,” said the president. “Those are the options we are looking at, but we will try to get the Gerehu Magpies and Waigani Tigers merger going.” He added that once a merger is confirmed this weekend, the association will have them on the men’s competition starting next week.

Papua New Guinean’s champion female weightlifter, Dika Toua, has just completed competing in her 5th Olympic Games. She finished 4th in group B of the 49kg category, snatching 72kg and Clean and Jerked 95kg, lifting a total of 167kgs. She is Team PNG’s first athlete to compete in the Women’s 49kg event today. The weightlifter’s participation also made history in the sport of Weightlifting as she now becomes the first female Weightlifter to compete in five Olympic Games. Meanwhile according to Team PNG, seven PNG athletes are yet to compete in their respective competitions in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Season proper for the Port Moresby Australian Football League (AFL) competition will kick off this Saturday 24th July, but it will not have all the teams participating. President of the Port Moresby AFL Association, Mr. Douglas Lai, confirmed that two teams will not be playing this weekend. The teams are, the North Waigani Tigers and the Gerehu Magpies. This is because they are yet to confirm the number of players in their teams respectively, before confirming their participation in the 2021 season competition. A schedule for this weekend’s games has been put together and all the matches will take place at the Colts Oval. A fully completed schedule for the season will be put out next week following this weekend’s games. Meanwhile, the Port Moresby AFL Women’s competition is expected to start in a couple of weeks after the start of the men’s competition. “A complete schedule for the women’s competition will be confirmed this week and hopefully the competition will start after two weeks,” said President Douglas Lai. The president also confirmed that only four teams will be participating in this year’s women’s competition.

Two teams from the Central Province have been given the opportunity to participate in the Port Moresby Australian Football League (AFL) competition to get the feel of the competition and show that they have what it takes to have a spot in the city competition. According to the AFL PNG Senior Football Operations Manager Mr. Rex Leka, one team is from Hula village and the other from Keapara village. They will be given that opportunity when the pre-season matches kick off on Saturday 17th July at the Colts Oval in Port Moresby. “We sent out an invitation to the two teams after they showed us their interest in playing in the city competition,” he said. Initially, the two villages played host to friendly matches last year and this year. These matches were part of the initiative by AFL PNG to promote the sport to youths in Central province, which got the interest of the two villages to put a team in the Port Moresby competition. The two teams will only have the chance to play in the pre-season as the proper-season schedules have not been finalized yet. Meanwhile, about four regular clubs in the city competition have already been confirmed to participate in the 2021 season while the other four clubs have not yet confirmed. The four that have confirmed are the Lamana Dockers, West Eagles, Kobonis and Gereka Bombers. The ones yet to do so are Bomana Cats, Gerehu Magpies, Tigers and Gordons Kokofas.

The Pasca Gas project is a step closer to its actual commencement in a few years’ time after the government and developer, Twinza Oil (PNG) Limited, came to terms in an agreement on the benefits packages for country and the developer. Petroleum Minister, Kerenga Kua, announced this afternoon that the state through the State Negotiation Team (SNT) secured a 55% total benefits package in the proposed Pasca Gas Project in the Gulf province following a successful final meeting last week between the SNT and Twinza Oil. Twinza Oil will have a 45% package in this project. The minister, while outlining the outcome of the meeting and benefits to come from the deal struck between the two parties, explained that the 55% is based on an oil price of 50 dollars a barrel; however, this could change for the better depending on the oil price. “The good news is oil price has gone up seventy- six dollars per barrel, so that’s bonus for us. If it stays there long enough it can take our total benefits package well above fifty- five, because there is room for increment depending on high oil price and its sustainability over time,” said the minister. The breakup of that 55% total benefits package will see 2% royalty to go to the Gulf provincial government. Minister Kua explained that since the project will be on the sea some 95kilometers offshore south of the province, no landowner will benefit but this does not mean that the people will not. The 2% royalty will be used by the Gulf provincial government to look after the needs of the people. Kua said what is important to note here is that it will be a 2% royalty of gross production and not of net deduction, meaning that it will be without deduction and the whole amount from that 2% will be received in full. This was insisted in the meetings between the parties because of past experiences where landowners do not get much from royalties because of net deductions. The minister said the state has done something quite new as well in the agreement, which was to secure 5% production levy. He explained that the Oil and Gas Act has no provision for entitlements for a production levy. This is something new that has been created out of the Pasca Gas project that will be beneficial for the country moving forward. “So that’s a big plus, early revenue. This one we’ve had to give away dividend withholding tax to secure this one because if we chase the dividend withholding tax, we will have to wait until the following financial year and that denies us money in real time when we need it.” Also, from the 55% benefits package, 2% development levy will go to the provincial government, 15% additional profit tax, 5% for Domestic Market Obligation (DMO) and then 30% for the normal corporate tax. The deal for the Pasca Gas project was hailed as a big achievement for Papua New Guinea (PNG) because despite its life span of just 12 years, the benefits will be great given that the benefits packaged secured is higher than that of the other gas projects, like the PNG LNG project. Twinza Oil Country Executive Director, Mr. Erick Kowa, said the deal now completes the negotiations with PNG to pave way for the execution and signing of the Pasca Gas project agreement, which is expected to take place on the 29th of this month. After the actual agreement signing, Twinza Oil will go to work on the project construction phase. The first production is expected to take place in 2024. Picture: Minister Kua addressing the press conference on the agreement reached between Twinza and the state at the Manasupe House, Port Moresby.