Madang LLGs to benefit from amended liquor law

Local Level Government presidents in Madang Province have welcomed the recent amendments made to the Provincial Liquor Law by the Madang Provincial Assembly.

The Provincial Liquor Control Bill was tabled by the chairman of law and order, Dum Bal, in the Provincial Assembly.

The amended law comes in nine parts and effectively repeals the 2009 Provincial Liquor Law.

The law basically allows the LLGs to generate some forms of revenue through registrations of liquor outlets within their respective LLG areas for the first time.

It also gives them allowance to pass their own LLG liquor by-laws and form their own LLG liquor boards to regulate the sale of alcohol.

President of Usino LLG, Charlie Wati, applauded chairman Bal for introducing the bill and the provincial assembly under the chairmanship of governor Ramsey Pariwa for voting unanimously to pass it.

"LLGs have been missing out on a lot of revenue in the past, and we are thankful the amended law now gives us the authority to collect some revenues, as well as create our own by- laws to regulate the sale of alcohol at the LLG level," Wati said.

"Previously, this power was with the Provincial Liquor Licensing Office only, and we missed out big time. We are happy that at least the new law is to our advantage.

"Alcohol alone has created a lot of social disorders in our communities, and hopefully, we can begin to see some improvements under the new Act."

Women and children's representative in the assembly, Margaret Anut, is equally excited that the new liquor law now empowers both the provincial and local level governments to impose tougher penalties on defaulters.

"There are a lot of grey areas in our provincial liquor act that needed tidying up, such as under-age drinking. Currently, children as young as 10 or 12 are buying and drinking alcohol and no one is doing anything. We need to also have proper monitoring mechanisms in place.

"The successful passage of this Bill will now create rooms for improvements," Ms. Anut said.

Meanwhile, a provincial liquor board is yet to be appointed to regulate this law.