APNU/AFC financier among city’s default taxpayers – Mayor

The Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) on Monday related that APNU/AFC financier Jacob Rambarran, the Livestock Development Company (LIDCO), and the proprietor of the Giftland Mall, Roy Beepat, among other companies, owe the M&CC in excess of $834 million.
“This is some of the eye pass of the business people doing in this city and the eye pass to this Council,” Georgetown Mayor Ubraj Narine stated.
In fact, Narine lambasted the Private Sector Commission (PSC) for adding its voice to the current electoral impasse instead of getting its members to pay the rates and taxes since the outstanding monies are owed by privately owned businesses.
“The same way the Private Sector Commission (PSC) get a voice, they must voice as well for the business sector for them to pay their taxes. They only voicing on election. What about the business people that owe us the city tax?” Narine questioned the PSC.
“These nonsense needs to stop. We have Giftland Mall with over 104 million in taxes.”
Narine stated that these businesses which still owe the Council are stifling the work of City Hall, given that money is not available.
“How long will the Mayor & City Council will continue in this manner? I have extended my hand to the Private Sector. I extended a hand to the Private Sector, what happened now, they dead?”
Narine added, “These are huge businesses; why [they] can’t pay their taxes. How [they] expect the city to function? How they expect us to deliver proper services to the citizens of this city?”
Last year December, the M&CC disclosed that businesses within the city owe City Hall over $8 billion in rates and taxes.
Moreover, the Mayor and City Council had launched a unit to recover over $8 billion in rates and taxes owed to the Council, but that unit seems not to be working as businesses continue to owe the Council a large sum of money.
In addition, based on a recommendation of the Commission of Inquiry into the City Council earlier this year, the City Treasurer related that the Council will put new measures in place to properly account for financial statements to ensure that accountability, transparency, and integrity are achieved in exchange for payment of taxes and provision of services by the City Council.
With the establishment of a Tender Committee, the Georgetown City Council had intended to come clean with its new accounting mechanisms and procedures, but with all these measures being implored, the efforts to get payments from defaulters continue to be a significant issue at the Mayor and City Council.