The private sector and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) are working to eliminate bottlenecks affecting the business community as the revenue body attempts to build on the success of its institutional reform.
At a Guyana Manufacturers and Services Association (GM&SA)-organised forum held on Friday at the Regency Suites on Hadfield Street, several issues including standardisation of documents and electronic data, fair and consistent enforcement of regulations as well as overtime for businesses to work beyond normal hours were some of the issues raised by the members of the business community.
It was disclosed at the forum that the GRA and the private sector has been engaging each other to iron out hiccups. President of the GM&SA Ramesh Dookoo, in brief remarks, stated that trade facilitation is a simple issue within the business sector and the issue formed the core of discussions at the forum.
One participant questioned the effectiveness of the Berbice Anti-Smuggling Squad (BASS) in the Corentyne area. GRA Deputy Commissioner General Clem Sealey stated that the body, which controls and monitors the trading of goods in the area, has met challenges over the years but according to him, the GRA is working to adequately address those challenges.
He said during a recent meeting with Suriname officials here, the issue of cross border smuggling was discussed and it was discovered that the issue was more a challenge to Guyana rather than to Suriname as goods are bought legitimately in that country and then smuggled here for resale.
Another issue brought to the fore was glitches in the processing of documentation for imports and the GRA was urged to inform the relevant businesses of delays and reasons for same. According to Sealey, the GRA has taken note of the concerns and plans to address them.
The GM&SA met recently with the GRA on March, 20 and the two bodies have been working to address issues affecting the business community.
Meanwhile, Sealey, in a brief presentation on institutional reform within the GRA, noted that it receives international funding from bodies such as USAID, makes provisions within its operations to provide management and technical training to its staff in order to provide efficient and improved services to the public.
Sealey touched briefly on the history behind institutional reforms to the GRA, which began in January 2000, prior to which the Customs and Excise as well as the Revenue Department fell under the purview of the Ministry of Finance. He said each unit had its own mandate, policies and procedures during that time.
He stated that restructuring of the GRA were on the basis of having the operations of the body fall along statute specific structures and according to him main categories of functions were pursued in this regard. Those were: the provision of common services, law enforcement, as well as planning and analysis of internal affairs and to investigate common and unexplained accumulation of wealth by GRA staff.
According to Sealey, prior to the body being reformed, limited use of information technology, limited storage of resources and the overall approach of the entities then were not considered cost effective, modern or economical the way things were structured.
He noted that legislation to have the body fall under the purview of a single agency was assented to by the late President Cheddi Jagan in 1996 and in year 2000 reforms were implemented in this regard.
Sealey stated that several challenges has faced the organisation over the years, including the incidence of smuggling as well as compliance by relevant persons with tax laws and according to him, the GRA is doing all in its powers to eliminate these.
He said reforms to the organisation over the years have seen the GRA being classified as a modern tax regime, which operates in a similar capacity as other international bodies internationally.
In addition, Sealey stated that the GRA is and continues to strive to deliver quality service to tax payers and have complimented its efforts in doing so with regular programs on TV, radio and the print media. He said that while there are “bugs in the system to be worked out,” there is more effective processing of information by the body.