Del. Secilil Elbedechel stated that this was the assessment during the oversight hearing conducted by the House of Delegates Committee on Ways and Means this week.
Elbedechel said that tax collection has been decreasing and that during the hearing the tax officials justified it because of the slow economy.
“Tax collection is not on the uptrend its declining,” he said.
He said that according to the officials the consumers are not spending much and that the oil price is spiraling.
This assessment however seems to be in contrary to what the business sectors are saying.
“The main purpose of the oversight hearing is to find out the current efforts of the tax office in collecting revenues,” he said.
It was projected that the tax collection will be at $31 million but according to the Financial report, the delegate said it might not even hit reach $30 million with barely a month left.
Earlier it was projected that Palau’s accumulated deficit could reach to $15 million.
The delegate said that there is a need for tax officials to be creative in running after tax delinquents because taxes are the main source of the country’s funding.
