The Prime Minister, Hon. James Marape MP, launched the online land rental payment collection system for the Department of Lands & Physical Planning in Port Moresby today.
The Department partners with Kina Bank and an online software company, NiuPay to have its revenue collection, bill payment for land titles, records and management system, which will now be done online.
He said the online payment system will enhance the Government’s land rentals collection on time and user friendly for land users.
“I look forward to the Lands Department working hard and progressing after this launch of the GoLands and eLands online software program.
“The Government is being advised that there is up to an estimated K400 million in outstanding land rentals that the State is supposed to collect through the Lands Department.
“This amount and other arrears is the revenue that we are not collecting as we are supposed to be collecting and I would like to commend the Ministers for Lands Hon. John Ross and his team for this milestone,” said Prime Minister Marape.
He said the GoLands and eLands online land rental payment, land records and revenue collection management system will be user friendly both for the government and title and or lease holders.
“Land is very important for the progress of our country and the appropriate land polices that we have are being fine-tuned to suit the
changing times as far as population growth and land use is concerned especially urban areas.
“So there is a lot of room and space for reforms in our Lands Department and for the year old Marape-Steven Government this program is one of the key performance indicators of the Lands Minister and his
Department as far as revenue collection is concerned.
“In this contemporary world of digital economy, e-commerce, digital education and digital business transactions, this Lands Department’s NiuPay system is beneficial to the users or clients of State as it works both ways and benefits everyone.
“I support this program to its full maturity and the Government isalso anticipating the use of technology and e-commerce as far as business of government is concerned.
“We will also be running similar revenue collection programs with Internal Revenue Commission-IRC, Customs, and all other government revenue collection agencies and in the key economic sectors.
“I am also glad that the proponents of this same software program have developed a similar revenue collection system for our Immigration Services and it is working well to date. So it is a step in the right direction so I am looking forward to modernizing the government’s revenue collection system in our country where every revenue collection will be geared towards paying online and digital payment instead of cash payments,’’ said Prime Minister Marape.
Prime Minister Marape when launching the GoLands and eLands online payment system said that in the last 40 years the government revenue collection through cash payments has been riddled with corruption, nepotism, and mishandling of revenue and that will be changed.
“We will be migrating to the online payment system with every Department that deals with revenue collection and I am happy that the Lands Department has stepped out as the first to moving into that space and policy vision.
“Papua New Guineans are using social media and are IT savvy and this program is beneficial as they can pay their bills at their own time
rather than standing in line at the Lands Office,’’ he said.
The Lands Departments GoLands and eLands program comes in two phases with the first phase being the revenue collection, receipting, data cleansing, process streaming and service delivery.
The GoLands online system focuses on billing, receipting, customer management and debt management, land lease and rentals payment
arrangements, reporting and support center where customers can go online and make payments or access these services.
The second phase is to ensure the land titles management and other data processing and availability is made easier for users. The system is online and will be fully functional by early next year, 2021.
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