Chinese Embassy refutes “baseless” KN report

The Chinese Embassy in Guyana has refuted claims by local newspaper, Kaieteur News that it is under investigation by the tax authorities for allegedly bringing in containers of goods for Chinese nationals operating businesses here.

“The Chinese Embassy in Guyana solemnly states that the report “Chinese Embassy container imports attract GRA’s attention” by Kaieteur News dated February 23, 2017, is baseless and unsubstantiated,” the Embassy said in a statement on Thursday.

Furthermore, it indicated that further investigation into the matter will be conducted, while indicating its right to take legal action.

According to the article published by the daily newspaper, the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) had reportedly raised the issue recently with the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Efforts by Guyana Times to contact Commissioner General of the tax body, Godfrey Statia, on the matter on Thursday were futile. However, according to the Kaieteur News, he was reluctant to speak directly on the issue but reportedly told the newspaper that the GRA has been embarking on a number of initiatives to widen the tax base and also chose some areas that were being taken advantage of over time.

“We have been losing billions overtime because of tax evasion, smuggling and other areas. We have started tightening up in some areas and we are seeing improved collections there,” the Kaieteur newspaper quoted the GRA Head.

Thursday’s article states, “According to well-placed Government officials this week, GRA late last year stumbled on what seemed like an abnormally large number of containers brought in by the Chinese Embassy. As a matter of fact, when GRA officials checked, they found that the Chinese Embassy brought in more containers than all the other embassies combined.”

It went on to say that initially investigators thought there was a mistake with the number of containers brought in, however “further checks confirmed that the embassy allegedly used its diplomatic channels to pass the containers through the wharves. Under the diplomatic arrangements, shipments and packages for embassies are not too closely scrutinised.”

While the Kaieteur News report did not state the amount of containers in question, it claimed that officials have estimated some tens of millions of dollars in lost taxes. According to the article, the containers were allegedly filled with “all sorts of items – from hardware and other accessories – which eventually ended up in a number of Chinese-manned stores. It meant very little or no taxes were paid on the items.”