The proprietor of a major city beer, beverage and alcohol outlet is backing the recent call by Banks DIH Ltd Chairman Clifford Reis for stricter measures by the country’s enforcement bodies to curb the influx of illegal beer and alcoholic beverages into Guyana.
But the businessman says that Reis’s call for legislation to further clamp down on illegal imports is unlikely to work “on its own” in the face of what he described as a “well-organized racket” involving smugglers and “support personnel” from within enforcement institutions.
Speaking with Stabroek Business last Tuesday he said that the proliferation of illegal alcoholic beverages in Guyana was due “partly to negligence on the part of the enforcement agencies, partly to corrupt transactions and partly to a lack of capacity to police the illegal points of entry.”
According to the businessman illegally imported beer and spirits are sold openly at established business houses in various parts of the country. He said that while “there is no way that the authorities can pretend not to be aware of this,” the sale of illegally imported spirits thrives mostly on “corrupt transactions.”
The proprietor told Stabroek Business that the importation of illegal beer and alcohol – particularly from Suriname – was “a well-organized arrangement.” Claiming a knowledge of ‘the system’ the businessman explained that beer, spirits and other products imported from Suriname illegally through “backtrack channels” frequently arrive in the country “under the noses of the enforcement authorities.” He said that in the cases of modest amounts of illegal imports sums of money were “passed” to facilitate the entry of the items into the country. According to the businessman, larger consignments of illegal beer and spirits are landed at various points on the Corentyne River and along the East Coast and discharged onto waiting vehicles. He said that most of these activities took place at night. The businessman is also alleging that there were cases in which documents pertaining to duty paid on legal alcohol imports were re-used to ensure that the importer did not pay for subsequent imports.
At the 52nd meeting of shareholders of the local beer and beverage company last Saturday Reis called for legislation to curb the smuggling of beer and alcohol which he said was hurting both the company’s sales and revenue to the state. But the proprietor told Stabroek Business that no amount of legislation can curb illegal beer and alcohol imports in the face of what he described as “a highly-organized smuggling arrangement”. He said that the agencies concerned were supportive of the smuggling activities both in terms of what in many cases was their “cooperation with the smugglers” as well as their inability to police the entry points.
In his address Reis noted that the evasion of duties by importers of illegal liquor enabled them to sell their products below the prices that obtained even at the Banks DIH Ltd Duty free shop.
And according to the businessman with whom Stabroek Business spoke it was possible to obtain beer imported from Suriname at “ridiculously low prices” particularly in Berbice. Asked whether the illegal beer and liquor was also available in Georgetown the businessman who markets Banks DIH Ltd products said that he had once been offered a “distributorship’ for a beer that originates in Suriname.
Locally produced Banks beer faces legal competition from Ansa Mc Al’s Carib Beer, Polar Beer and the Surinamese beer Parbo which along with other beverages manufactured in Suriname are being imported into Guyana.
