‘Respect our laws’
PRIME Minister (PM) Manasseh Sogavare has reminded the investors to comply with the business laws of the country.
He made the call in his COVID-19 weekly nationwide address yesterday.
The call came after the ‘Business Monitoring Joint Agencies Committee’ of Foreign Investment Division of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, Labour and Immigration has completed its assessment on ‘compliances and enforcement’ in various business sectors in the Solomon Islands.
Sogavare said that this exercise and auditing is the first of its kind in 25 years.
According to Sogavare a total of 450 Foreign Investments were inspected during the operations.
From the assessment, he added that a total of 35 existing companies will receive notices on non-compliances in the Western Province.
“Show cause and stop notices were served to ten wholesale and retail shops in Munda and Noro and penalties of $100,000.00 were imposed according to the Foreign Investment Act for non-compliance and breach of their conditions of approval.
As a direct result of the inspections, Sogavare also said that the Government has so far collected total revenue of $400,000.00, with more to be collected.
In Isabel Province, he said three show-cause notices were issued to three logging companies for non-compliance.
“The expected revenue for SIG under inspections in Isabel is in the order of $3 million dollars,” Sogavare said.
In Malaita Province, Sogavare said all retailing investments in the province were given a grace period till this Friday, 18th December to update their registrations.
“Penalties will be imposed after this date,” he added.
“In Central Province, two show-cause notices were served to logging companies and the expected revenue is two million dollars for non-compliance.
“In Guadalcanal Province, six show-cause notices were served to logging and mining companies and four show-cause notices serve to Wholesale & Retail owned by Bangladeshi nationals,” he added.
Sogavare further stated that three show-cause notices were served to two logging companies and a mining company in Rennel and Bellona Province whilst notices were issued to all companies in Honiara for updating registrations and filing overdue progressive reports.
He also stressed that the monitoring unit will perform periodical checks on companies that had been inspected and execute follow-ups on served show-cause notices.
By ANDREW FANASIA
Newsroom Honiara