By Johann Earle
The Guyana Revenue Autho-rity (GRA) is working to-wards streamlining its vehicle licensing system and a single database will enable it and the police to check the authenticity of documents on the spot.
This is according to an official of the Licence Revenue Office of the Internal Revenue Division.
The official said that it is a system so designed that if someone is intercepted the Police don’t have to go to the licence division to verify the registration and owner; they can have access to the system to determine all the vehicle’s particulars.
Further, a new driver’s licence for Guyanese will be soon introduced with enhanced security features. But there will be a five-day waiting and verification process for those applying for new licences and for those who have misplaced theirs and want replacements.
According to the official at the Licence Office, the new driver’s licence will be in the form of a plastic card – the size of an ID card or ATM card – and will be impregnated with electronic security features.
A sample of the licence, which bore the face of none other than the Commissioner General Khurshid Sattaur, has on it the classes of vehicles the holder is authorised to drive.
But even though the new technologies are not in place as yet, the Licence Revenue Office has several stringent measures in place to counter counterfeiting and other licensing irregularities associated mainly with the illegal importation of motor vehicles and motor cycles through the borders.
Just last week, the Police and the GRA were able to detect that two Toyota Tundras, identical in appearance, had the same numbers attached to them. The GRA said that although duties were paid for both vehicles, only one of them had been registered.
Further, it is widely known that motorbikes traverse the Guyana-Brazil border without the necessary taxes being paid on them. But this is only applicable in some cases since bikes less than 175 cc don’t attract duties.
The Commissioner General couldn’t be reached for comment on the new system to be implemented despite numerous attempts.
Sometime ago, Sattaur said that numerous vehicles are able to escape taxes because of loopholes that made the present system easy to manipulate.
He had told this newspaper that revamping the system will curb vehicle theft, evasion of duties and other revenues.
He said that with the new system, it will be much more difficult to re-register stolen cars and the making of licence plates bearing false numbers or numbers that are not in existence should be a thing of the past.
Sattaur had said that once this system is implemented, all of the records will be easily accessible and even if someone were to change documents for a car or other vehicle, the database will have the correct information.
Sattaur said that any changes to the particulars – ownership, engine number, year of manufacture and the date of registration – would be detected. The mechanism, which is to be set up at various points, will also be able to pick up if taxes for the vehicles have not been paid.
