Morobe Governor Luther Wenge has announced that there was in actual fact a tax increase as per the Income Tax ( Salary & Wages Tax) (Rates)(2024 Budget)(Amendment) Bill 2023 that was an act to amend the Income Tax (Salary Tax)(Rates)(1979), that was made by the National Parliament to come into effect on the 1st January, 2024 was not a technical glitch but simply the law being implemented. “It’s not a technical glitch. I am a legislator, we passed that law. I remember it clearly. It’s the clear law, they are implementing it.” Governor Wenge stated that he has told the government to suspend the implementation and call the parliament so that they can amend the law for the good of the people of this nation. “All illegal it may be, it is already legal to be implemented now. For the goodness of humanity and the people of this nation, I am asking them to suspend the implementation.” “Call the Parliament so that we can amend the law.” He told PNG HAUSBUNG that this situation is similar to what happened in the VAT case of 2010 where Governor Wenge challenged the validity of the Value Added Tax, introduced in 1989 and managed to convince the Supreme Court that this law was unconstitutional for the people of Papua New Guinea. “I challenged the VAT law as harsh and oppressive, unconstitutional in the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court agreed that that law is illegal.” “The VAT law is illegal and government have no power to collect taxes from the people, that’s why parliament was called as soon as possible to rectify this situation and introduced the GST Goods and services act instead of value added tax and we gave power to the IRC to collect money.” Meanwhile Wenge added that the government of the Day and the Internal Revenue Commission was not being honest about the facts of the matter. “The government is lying. I can tell you, I am a legislator. IRC is lying. Print the law so that the nation will know that the government is telling lies.”