Finance Minister ignored as VAT still charged on GeoPark cards
Parking meter fiasco
− immobilisation fines also attracting extra charges
Despite Finance Minister Winston Jordan’s announcement that GeoPark cards should not be attracting Value Added Tax (VAT) charges, retailers have continued to impose the extra charge on motorists purchasing parking time.
This was evident Tuesday when this publication purchased the card from a North
The invoice received from the purchase of the GeoPark card
Road retailer. A perusal of the tax invoice revealed that an extra charge of 16 per cent had been applied to the purchase of the two cards.
Any doubts about the origin of the extra charge were removed when a $2500 ($2900 VAT inclusive) notice was observed on the front of the GeoPark card.
During the January 30 sitting of the National Assembly, Jordan, who is the subject Minister overseeing the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), had addressed the
The fine one hapless motorist was slapped with
issue directly. Jordan had stated that Smart City Solutions (SCS) must remove any VAT charges on the cards it retailed.
“That is an error on the part of the SCS. It is incorrect, the VAT is only supposed to go on the parking itself. Treat it the same way as how you treat the telephone cards. The VAT isn’t on the card, it is on the telephone service itself,” Jordan had said, while promising to issue an advisory to the company for good measure.
Following a meeting between GRA Commissioner General Godfrey Statia, Deputy Commissioner General Hema Khan and a delegation from SCS, led by its Managing Director, Amir Oren, the GRA itself said: “The VAT which is currently being charged at a rate of 16 per cent is included in the cost of the prepaid cards which are being sold citywide. It should be noted that as of February 1, 2017, VAT will be applied at a rate of 14 per cent.”
The revenue collection agency had also observed that since a number of cards were printed and sold prior to the VAT rate being reduced; SCS had agreed to inform its vendors of the need to reduce the total cost of the cards accordingly.
Immobilisation charges
According to a complaint reaching Guyana Times, one motorist had her car clamped while parked on Water Street. According to the citation, she was fined for being “illegally” parked without a card, an offence committed at 16:01h.
As it turns out, however, she did have a card she purchased at 15:53h, with her time scheduled to expire at 16:38h. For her ‘offence’, her car was immobilised and
The front of the parking ticket
she was slapped with a charge of $9260 to recover it – despite the by-laws stipulating an immobilisation penalty of $8000.
Meanwhile, the two incidents were brought to the attention of Smart City’s Public Relations Consultant Kit Nascimento. According to the communications consultant, the charge listed on the card and the price this publication paid in its invoice appeared to be a “mistake”, on the part of the vendor.
“SCS has instructed its wholesalers who have in turn instructed their retailers that the VAT rate has been changed as of February 1, 2017. That said, retailers, when selling prepaid meters parking cards should know better than to charge 16 per cent VAT on anything anymore, let alone prepaid parking cards,” Nascimento stated.
“Regarding whether VAT is charged on the cards or at the parking terminals, the cards are prepaid in nature. And as such, the cards are prepaid with both the balance for parking, along with the associated VAT. As the cards are used, the prepaid funds are debited both for the parking and the associated VAT.”
He went on to assure that there was no double charge involved, stating that “the concept is simple. Parking and VAT are prepaid and then debited per use”.
