The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) has been able to increase its revenue by $27.4 billion for last year, which it has attributed to an increase of the tax base and certain categories of collections.
The Guyana Revenue Authority
This was revealed at a press conference organised by the tax agency on Friday. According to GRA Commissioner General, Godfrey Statia, the Commission collected $230 billion in revenue for last year.
“Our revenue collections would have increased, to just under $230 billion in 2019, which is 27.4 billion more than 2018. That’s 13.8 per cent more than we would have achieved for 2018. That is a sizeable revenue growth, we have constantly been in double figures growth since 2016.”
“We have actually moved revenue collections from 2016 when it was $145 billion, now 2019 it is $230 billion.
According to Statia, a number of factors are responsible for the increase. Among those factors, as cited by Statia, is the widening of the tax base – in other words, GRA collecting more taxes from people.
“You can see that the efforts of GRA, where it was wide-ranging in making changes and the widening of the tax base, would have led to certain increases…there have been significant increases in gold production and declaration.”
“Significant amount in withholding taxes [has been collected]. Significant amount in taxes on motor vehicles and these things… there has been a reduction in excise tax,” the Commissioner General also said.
Tax collection has been on the rise for a number of years, with GRA collecting $170 billion in revenue for 2017. In 2018, the agency collected $199 billion in revenue, an increase of what had originally been projected.
While increased tax collection amounts to money for the State coffers, the parliamentary Opposition has long argued that from an economic sense, tax collection without corresponding growth in the economy is a bad combination.
Back in 2017, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo had pointed out that when the 200 new tax measures he said were introduced in 2016 fully kick in, Guyanese will feel the squeeze. It has since formed an important part of the Opposition’s campaign.
“You will see the cost of living going up, the business community will be unable to survive in the new tax environment,” he had prophesied, adding that with the pressure from GRA, these businesses will not feel driven to invest and create more jobs in the future.
“So, you would see not only deterioration in terms of cost of living going up, but less jobs being produced in the future because no one wants to invest in this country. And right now, people are losing jobs rather than them creating jobs that they [Government] promised,” Jagdeo had further stated.
Over the past few years, industries like the agriculture sector and mining have shown contractions.
