Dear Editor,
With the pace of progress taking place in Guyana at the present moment, there has been an influx of companies taking advantage of this lucrative business climate. This coupled with Caricom’s Single Market and Economy (CSME) these business entities are mushrooming all around, and for the proper functioning of these businesses, foreign currency plays an important part in the importation among other necessary transactions of one’s business.
Seeing foreign exchange is such a vital necessity, there is always a need for the international currency here in Guyana. What happens ever-so often, is a depletion of those resources when the Bank of Guyana is called upon to fill the void.
Now the question is asked, how much of that foreign currency is invested here in Guyana, or how much of that hard currency is plowed back into the economy here? Are those corporations clamouring for currencies, legitimately owned or registered to do business here in this country, or are they dummy corporations?
I believe some of them are in the latter group, dummy entities who are planted here to parasitically plunder our hard currency. From firm evidence gathered, I am convinced that there are dummy businesses in our midst, that were deliberately set up to take advantage of our liberal foreign currency exchange, there is no question in my mind about that!
Then it behooves us to believe that these entities masquerading here do not have Guyana’s development at heart, they are simply here to plunder what we have fought so hard to buildup. For this reason, we need to become more alert to these developments taking place in our foreign currency market.
In this regard, The GRA needs to take a proactive role, the revenue authority needs to mount an investigation into the many corporations doing business here to ascertain legitimate ones, from those acting the role of dummy corporations. I am talking about those who were created to serve as a cover for other sinister activities such as using hard currency gleaned here, to foster the development of their investments in other countries; that is not allowed!
Dummy entities such as these, have the negative effect of hemorrhaging our foreign capital. This cannot be allowed to continue, foreign currency bought in Guyana ought to be spent in Guyana or otherwise used for the furtherance of businesses here in Guyana, there is no other way.
So, Guyana needs to have a firmer grip on its fiscal laws as it relates to “foreign companies” operating here, we need to become more conservative in the management of our finances. When you look at the way the developed countries handle its finances and the stringent methods applied to the operations of big companies, it shows how much we have to learn in meeting that goal. The time to get there is now!
Respectfully,
Neil Adams
