Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Commissioner General Godfrey Statia said the entity has taken a zero-tolerance stance against corruption in any form at the revenue body, noting that should each eligible person pay their taxes, the country would most certainly be a better place.
GRA Commissioner General Godfrey Statia
The Commissioner General, who took the helm of the revenue body some five months ago, was at the time speaking to Journalists, at his very first press briefing.
He was also at the time addressing the issue of alcohol and cigarettes smuggling, relaying that the Agency has lost close to $2 billion in taxes per year as a result. He said many of these things happen because of erring taxpayers and unscrupulous employees within the system.
“We intend to minimise that collusion. I have said it before, I will say it again: I will not tolerate collusion, because if everyone pay their share of taxes – which as far as I am aware – is close to 30-40 per cent of our taxes that are not paid – if everyone pay their rightful taxes, certainly the tax rates will go down,” Statia told the boardroom of journalists and heads of department.
He said the entity has to change its approach, and seek out those persons who are bent on evading the system.
“We will be minimising our efforts on the people that we know that usually pay their taxes and concentrate our efforts on those we know that do not pay their taxes. People that are the employees, versus the businesses that accumulate wealth and pay their taxes. So come 2017, our resources will be challenged in the area of compliance, enforcement review and audit,” he said.
With regard to the issue of alcohol and cigarette smuggling, Statia said the GRA would soon have stamps on these imports so as to minimise smuggling.
He said there has also been intense smuggling of fuel. The GRA chief revealed that a team was sent into the border town of Eteringbang, and based on previous information, found that the GRA has lost millions of dollars owing to fuel smuggling. He noted that the Agency would be increasing its presence in Eteringbang and Morowana, to minimise the smuggling.
“We all know that if everybody pays their fair share of taxation, once you widen the tax base, tax rates will reduce.”
According to him, many persons have also been “falling through the cracks” because of the issues with the entity’s Information Technology programme. The GRA has also been seeing a lot of businesses operating without licences; this would have to be addressed through stringent measures, the GRA Commissioner General promised.
“Coupled with that, we have close to 32,000 businesses that are non-registered that are actively out there…because we have been stymied registering businesses. In the new budget, we have decided that all of those unregistered businesses, we will give them what is called a provisional registration, so we have them in the tax net and then we give them a number of years in which they will actually legally register under the law.” (Alexis Rodney)
