Dear Editor,
Some legislation needs to be revised or abolished. The following are two examples:
The law requires that a motor vehicle used for hire or transportation of goods or passengers should have on display in a conspicuous manner the road service licence and the certificate of fitness.
(1) Question: Why? What about the insurance? Shouldn’t this be displayed too? In any event, the driver of the vehicle will still have to delve into his glove compartment or wherever he/she keeps the documents to produce the insurance if requested to do so by a traffic rank.
(editor’s note: the insurance certificate does not have to be displayed but by virtue of Section 7(1) of the Motor Vehicles Insurance (Third Party Risks) Act it must be produced if requested by a member of the police force. Accordingly, it should be kept in the vehicle.)
Another law that is much flouted and ignored is the requirement to place revenue stamps on receipts when receiving monies for goods and services. As far as I know only government offices and to a lesser extent some private and publicly owned businesses comply with this law.
What consumers receive now is a little slip of paper from the cash register with no revenue stamps.
No vendor or small shop complies with this law because it is a burden. Imagine buying vegetable “Greens” at Bourda Market and waiting for the vendor to write a receipt and affix a revenue stamp.
Another thing that bothers me is: When do citizens who have had excess income taxes deducted from their pay and who have duly filed their tax return get their tax refunds from the GRA.
I know of one fellow who has overpaid GRA by $7,131(via the PAYE system) since 2003 and has not yet had a response from GRA.
Yours faithfully,
Armand Persaud