…agency used sweeping tax concessions to import luxury vehicles
Details are only now emerging of the sweeping concessions and immunities the former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government granted to a regional diplomatic intergovernmental agency it hosted in Guyana back in 2018.
The agency in question, the Partnership for Sustainable Land Management (PISLM), was set up by the former David Granger-led Government. However, what was unknown until now was just how much members and non-nationals on this agency, headquartered in Guyana, benefitted from tax concessions and other perks.
According to the Host Agreement seen by this publication, the former APNU/AFC Government granted the members of this body immunity from various arms of law enforcement. Members of the Guyana Police Force (GPF), Guyana Defence Force (GDF), the Judiciary or administrative, were barred from entering any PISLM property unless they receive the consent of the agency’s Executive Director.
“All archives and records, correspondence, documents and other materials of PISLM shall be inviolable… PISLM, its property, assets and other facilities, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall enjoy immunity from every form of legal process except (if) it has waived its immunity; it is understood, however, that no waiver of immunity shall extend to any measure of execution,” the document states.
The scientific and technical staff of this agency were granted exemptions from paying income tax or National Insurance Scheme (NIS) contributions, as well as exemptions from paying customs duty and Value Added Tax (VAT) on any motor vehicles, personal and household items they imported within the first 12 months of their stay in Guyana.
According to information seen by this publication, a number of luxury vehicles were brought into Guyana using this provision. These vehicles include a 2019 Mercedes G550 and a 2021 Cadillac Escalade, which arrived just days ago.
This agreement was signed into effect on December 28, 2018, by then Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge. Also signing off on the document was Chairman of the PISLM Task Force, then Guyana Lands and Surveys Commissioner (GL&SC) Trevor Benn. Benn has since been dismissed from the GL&SC and is before the court on unrelated charges.
PISLM was formerly hosted by Trinidad and Tobago, until the agreement was signed in 2018 for it to be relocated in Guyana. Following a high-level session of sustainable land management in 2018, Benn had said that the establishment of the office locally would allow Guyana to play a leading role in sustainable land use.
“When it comes to the issue of sustainable land management, we are taking a number of steps, including for the first time in Guyana, we are going to be having a national land policy. We’re working on a national land policy, revising all of our land use plans. We are trying to make them more descriptive than prescriptive,” Benn had said.
