Jagdeo calls out Church’s Chicken owner on “duplicitous” behaviour

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has called out businessman Terrence Campbell, accusing him of engaging in “duplicitous” behaviour and defending his political allies while attempting to undermine the Government. Jagdeo has consistently clashed with Campbell over his vocal criticisms of the current administration.
Campbell, who has been vocal in his criticisms of the Government, particularly concerning the management of the Natural Resource Fund (NRF), has recently been at the centre of a controversary where he was given over a $100 million tax write-off by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
The situation took a more personal turn when Campbell’s tax information was leaked to the media, exposing a tax waiver granted to him by GRA to the tune of $138, 835, 578.
During his weekly press conference on Thursday, Jagdeo once again criticised Campbell for public comments suggesting that Government prompted GRA to investigate Sheriff Group, among others for tax evasion.

The Vice President addressed the issue stating, “I was surprised to see the man who was complaining about other people not paying taxes to recognise now that he was massively evading taxes…and under the PPP (People’s Progressive Party) he got these massive write-offs.”
“First of all, let me say that what this represents here in my view is a sort of criminality that goes beyond simple tax evasion… he’s using the money that belong to the state, the paying customers, the ordinary man who walk in and buy a two-piece chicken and pay taxes, he kept it.”
Unaware of write-off
Jagdeo made it clear that while the waiver was granted on September 25, 2020, under the current tenure of the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) Government, the administration was unaware of the write-off.

“The Commissioner General is authorised to write-off penalties and interest; this has to be done on the basis of some transparent criteria. So, I am shocked that we in the executive didn’t know this. This exercise of discretion under the law must if not change, the public have a right to know this because if this document didn’t surface, we would not have known,” the VP said.
According to the leaked document, Campbell wrote a letter of request to GRA on September 11, 2020 asking for a waiver of penalty/ interest allegedly “accrued on the late submission of returns and late payments principal taxes, respectively.”
Providing further incites on the matter, Jagdeo alleged that “this took place on the September 25, 2020. So, what this says to me is that under the APNU (A Partnership for National Unity) period he was allowed not to pay these (taxes) and as soon as we got into office in August of 2020, he realised then that this situation could not continue and so he hurriedly got this big write off in the penalties.”
“This is the guy who lectures about probity, who lectures us about the Natural Resource Fund,” the Vice President said.
Campbell has since threatened legal action over the leaked documents while GRA has promised an investigation into the release of the documents.