Commissioner-General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Khurshid Sattaur says that a Toyota Prado imported by him was a used one thus the taxes paid was less than if it was a new one.
Sattaur, in a letter responding to an article in the Kaieteur News headlined ‘GRA boss imports Prado for $1.5M’ which reported that there seems to be varying tax charges for the same type of vehicle and these charges appear to be levied according to who the person is, said that his vehicle was purchased at an auction and repaired.
The KN article had reported that the Legal Affairs Ministry as well as parliamentarian Kwame Gilbert had imported similar vehicles and the values of these were declared at $7.2 million and $7.4 million respectively but Sattaur’s vehicle had a declared value of just under $1.5 million. While the ministry and Gilbert enjoyed full tax exemption, Sattaur is not entitled to full tax exemption and his vehicle attracted a 30 per cent import tax and given the declared value of it, this would amount to $450,000, the newspaper reported. It noted that had the Legal Affairs Ministry and Gilbert been asked to pay the 30 per cent taxes they would have been required to pay $2.1 million.
The newspaper questioned whether Sattaur’s vehicle was undervalued to escape the higher tax.
In response, Sattaur said that he wants to make it clear that taxes on imports are applied on the basis of the CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight) value. “The Customs value is determined by the acquisition cost and not what a comparison would look like with similar vehicles months after,” he wrote.
According to the tax boss, as such the value of a vehicle acquired new from a show room differs significantly in value from a vehicle that is used and has a significant amount of miles on the odometer and even considerably less if acquired from a salvage firm with considerable damage.
“Unfortunately, my vehicle belongs to the latter category as I had done the honourable thing of buying a used salvaged vehicle at an auction at an amount I can afford. I have not chosen to hide any income and later through money laundering such income to disguise the fact that the purchase belongs to someone else and in the process commit criminal offences,” he said.
“It is not ideal to purchase a salvage vehicle with extensive damage since serious mechanical and other problems develop from time to time and requires further investment in repairs and maintenance. However, as a public servant with a family to maintain I could not afford a new vehicle as many others could and was compelled to purchase a damaged vehicle,” Sattaur stated.
He said that his vehicle cannot be compared with a show room vehicle acquired by the Attorney-General and Gilbert. According to Sattaur, he purchased the vehicle at an auction for $1.5M and spent a further $4M to bring the vehicle into good repair.
He asserted that everything was done legitimately and provided an email from a Danny Persaud which spoke of the deal. According to Persaud’s email, he entered into an agreement with Sattaur to import a salvaged Toyota Prado since Sattaur’s budget did not allow for the importation of one without damage. “As we both know the purchase of this Prado took over six months to acquire since this was an exceptional deal (and) was purchased from USS auto auctions of Japan and from time to time you can see like vehicles being sold at similar prices. For the record the vehicle sustained extensive damage to the entire right side, front and chassis. We had damage so extensive that we had to change the doors and have the chassis sorted twice to get it right,” Persaud wrote.
“I do know the truth about the importation of the said vehicle and should there be any disbelief I’m open for business and would gladly import a like vehicle for anyone since it’s business for me,” Persaud added in the email.
