The Licence Revenue Office (LRO) does not facilitate the change of chassis numbers on registration certificates for vehicles and is advising buyers to verify the authenticity of the registration on a vehicle prior to purchase.
In a press release, Acting Director at the LRO Whentworth Tanner said his office was not legally bound to facilitate this process as no one is legally authorised to reconstruct motor vehicles. He said reconstructed vehicles pose a safety risk to their occupants and over the years the LRO has been challenged by the prevalence of forged documents, rooted in the illegal importation of motor vehicles and motor cycles.
Tanner said that with the importation of motor vehicle parts including chassis and engines, several crashed vehicles are being reconstructed for reuse and chassis and/or engine numbers stated on the Certificate of Registration are often altered. When the vehicle is resold the new buyer would not be able to transfer the registration into his/her name. He said those plying the illegal importation trade, who also falsified documents, had scammed many persons.
Tanner said recently there has been an increase in the number of requests for changes to chassis number on registration certificates, particularly for Toyota brand vehicles. He said too while the importation of motor vehicle parts was a legal trade, the reconstruction of vehicles has the potential to pose serious revenue collections problems for the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
In addressing this issue, GRA Commissioner-General Khurshid Sattaur said “there would be no opening in the LRO system which would create ways for unscrupulous persons to continue to defraud the revenue system.”
According to the release, currently the LRO has “several stringent measures in place to counter the prevalence of counterfeiting and other licensing irregularity.” It said the office was in the process of sanitising its database. A waiting period of five working days has also been introduced for persons collecting copies of lost documents and registration to facilitate a verification process. This measure was effected on February 25, 2007.
