The Internal Revenue Commission (IRC) of Papua New Guinea (PNG) will now be able to audit companies in the fisheries industry to ensure they comply with the country’s tax laws. This was made possible through a recent Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the IRC, the National Fisheries Authority (NFA) and National ICT Authority (NICTA), on information sharing. From a tax perspective, the fisheries sector has been challenging to administer and manage resulting in the IRC unable to correctly audit players in the PNG fisheries industry. The consequences of this have been a reduction and loss in the overall tax revenue, a drag in tax compliance, a non- disclosure of revenue specifically, and directly affecting corporate income tax and goods and services tax. The IRC Commissioner General, Mr. Sam Koim, strongly emphasised the need to aggressively ensure that the conduct of players in the primary industry are properly scrutinized, monitored, and regulated. Given that the fisheries sector falls within the ambit of the broader primary industry, the IRC aims to curtail adverse effects associated with transfer pricing, based erosion and profit shifting in the fisheries industry. This cannot be achieved without a strong collaboration between the NFA and the IRC. During the MoU signing last week, another key issue brought up was data security when sharing information between the three state agencies. Data protection is a crucial part of this MoU, which aims to safeguard personal and private data as well. Mr. Justin Llikani, Managing Director of the NFA, stated, “The MoU signifies the partnership between NFA and the IRC to ensure data compliance, particularly in the fisheries sector, where companies must adhere to both fish management and tax laws.” The goal is to share data to ensure compliance and prevent tax evasion while protecting data sovereignty and adhering to NFA policies. A data warehouse will be created to store fisheries and tuna data, ensuring it aligns with NFA's data protection policies. The MoU will set the foundation to address these challenges with Mr. Koim also added that international taxation efforts are being pursued, including participation in conferences and investments in pillar- one and two work led by OECD. “Countries like Australia are already collecting taxes from companies like Google and Facebook, and similar efforts are being planned,” he stated. The signing of the MoU enhances the IRC's collaboration with key stakeholders, through its professional partnership framework. This framework supports the responsible use and sharing of data under the IRC's Data Governance Framework, ensuring that strong policies are in place to effectively manage data throughout its lifecycle.