The Upper Corentyne Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UCCI) is willing, in principle, to support the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) in its efforts to curb trans-border smuggling between neighbouring Suriname and Guyana, but needs to depend on its members to provide verifiable information for submission to the revenue authority.
“We are against smuggling and are prepared to cooperate with the GRA where solid evidence of smuggling exists,” UCCI President Vishnu Doerga told Stabroek Business in a telephone interview with this newspaper on Tuesday.
Doerga’s remarks came in the wake of a call issued by GRA Commis- sioner-General Kurshid Sattaur for his office to be given the names of the smugglers. Doerga told Stabroek Business that the issue of smuggling had arisen on other occasions during meetings between the GRA and representatives of the Berbice business community. However, apart from emphasizing that the effectiveness of Sattaur’s call depended on the preparedness of members of the business community to provide information, Doerga said that he shared the view that such reports must be based on verifiable information.
Several major companies have publicly voiced their concern over the impact of cross-border smuggling on commercial life in Berbice and other parts of the country. Concerns about smuggling and its impact on the profitability of locally manufactured alcoholic beverages have been repeatedly expressed by Banks DIH Ltd, while local cigarette distributor Demerara Tobacco Company has also expressed concern about trans-border smuggling of cigarettes manufactured elsewhere. Other business houses trading in furniture and other manufactured commodities have also been protesting loss of earnings resulting from competition from cheaper smuggled items.
Sattaur’s call for the Berbice business community to provide information which could help reduce the level of illegal trading, however, appears not to have met with universal endorsement among Berbice businessmen. A lower Corentyne businessman, who spoke with Stabroek Business on condition of anonymity, dismissed the suggestion as “unrealistic,” pointing out that those businessmen who provide the GRA with information on smuggling run the “risk” of being seen as “informers”; which could have “consequences”. According to the businessman, who said that his own establishment is being undersold by smugglers “it is not fair to ask us to provide that information”. He said while he shared the view that action should be taken to curb smuggling since it effectively “damages the real economy” of Berbice. “The GRA has resources at its disposal with which to find the smugglers. Smuggling is not a quiet, underhand thing here in Berbice. Smuggled goods are moved in large quantities and it is not that difficult to find out who the smugglers are. There is lot of money in this business and it is shared around. Businesses that have become tired of the illegal competition have also become part of the smuggling racket in order to survive,” he added.
Asked whether he was aware of reports that members of the Berbice Anti Smuggling Squad (BASS) were ‘on the take’ from persons who smuggle goods into Guyana the businessman responded that he had heard such comments but had no evidence since he was not a part of the smuggling practice. ‘What I will say is that with all these rumours going around it cannot be that difficult for the Guyana Revenue Authority to get information that could help reduce the level of smuggling. “
