In an exclusive interview with Stabroek News, he revealed that the GCCI’s Advocacy Committee has enlisted the services of Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram to formulate a tax reform proposal on which the thorny issue of whether to reduce personal income tax would be addressed.
Urling first raised the issue in his address at GCCI’s Annual Dinner and Awards ceremony on Thursday evening at the Pegasus Hotel, stating that tax reform should not be piecemeal. “Tax reform should be done in a comprehensive manner as opposed to a disjointed or fractional manner,” he said in his speech.
He acknowledged that government revenues are critical to advancing developmental objectives and so steps would have to be taken to mitigate the impact of any tax cuts. “Whether it increases government revenues and burdens the taxpayer or decreases government revenue, we have to find a way to make up for the shortfall or offer relief to taxpayers,” he added.
Urling informed that the GCCI has already created a sub-committee headed by Ram to review the entire tax system using input from GCCI’s members and statistical analysis of economical reports done. Recommendations from this exercise will be shared with the public and policy stakeholders.
The GCCI president stated that the chamber’s decision on personal income tax will be made after the final report. However, he personally feels that while keeping Value Added Tax (VAT) there should be lower income and corporate taxes. Urling feels that should this decision be made it would spur spending, send up VAT revenues and encourage businesses to expand due to the increased demand by consumers with larger disposable income. “I believe we should keep the VAT tax [an indirect tax] because it taxes domestic consumption. Moreover, VAT exempts many basic food items so it doesn’t burden the poor. This approach of moving away from direct to indirect taxes would make available more disposable income for consumers [lowering income tax] and more income for companies [lowering corporate taxes] to reinvest into their businesses or pursue new expansion activities,” he said.
The GCCI envisions compromise and cooperation in Parliament, between the executive and legislature, local government reform and elections, security and the establishment of the Public Procurement Commission among others.
Twelve awards
Meanwhile at the Chamber’s dinner and awards ceremony a total of twelve awards were given in two categories. A Lifetime Achievement Award and Award of Achievement were also given.
Rabindranauth and Inderjeet Beharry both of the Beharry Group received the Lifetime Achievement Award for their contributions to the development of the business environment in Guyana which present opportunities for learning in future generations.
Two posthumous awards were given to the owners of Denmor Garment Factory and Bakewell Bakery, Dennis Morgan and Naeem Nasir respectively.
The Media Award for outstanding media coverage of the work of the chamber and business community went to Stabroek News‘ Business Editor Arnon Adams.
Other awards given were: Business of the Year for a small to medium business and for a large business; Young Business Executive; Public Service Award of Excellence; Corporate Citizenship; Innovation and the Chamber Award. There were also the President’s Award and an award for Long Service.
The event was chaired by Dr Rosh Khan and had musician Dave Martins as its guest speaker. The latter, through jocular sharing of horrid experiences here, urged businesses to focus on service development as it is integral, more so given the fact that Guyana is marketing tourism.
