The National Assembly saw consensus yesterday on the passage of a bill that government says will ensure that the abuse of the remigrant scheme, particularly the granting of duty-free concessions, is brought to an end.
The parliamentary opposition threw its full support behind the Customs (Amendment) Bill, which was piloted through its final readings by Finance Minister Winston Jordan.
“This is a good measure. It is a good attempt by the government to block the holes which have been identified in the system and, hopefully, this will go a far way in assisting the revenue authority in their quest to guard against abuse of the remigrant scheme,” PPP/C MP Anil Nandlall said last evening as he announced the opposition’s support for the bill.
Jordan had earlier told the National Assembly that the bill seeks to amend a section of the Customs Act to standardise requirements of residency, entitlements and conditions with regards to duty-free concessions for vehicles imported by qualified remigrants and settlers.
He noted that the remigrant scheme is one initiative aimed at attracting the large number of citizens living in the diaspora and who could be of great benefit to the country, given the level of skills those persons possess.
“I daresay in the early days it worked reasonably well but of late some kinks have been thrown up, so to speak, and, in particular, one kink that has to do with who really is a remigrant and what are the entitlements, especially as it relates to vehicles,” Jordan said.
He alluded to newspaper reports about people being granted remigrant status and being allowed to access their duty-free concessions, particularly for the importation of vehicles, even though they were not living here. He said that because of a “lax system,” problems have arisen and the amendments, therefore, seek to define who is a remigrant and to define how concessions can be granted. He said too that the bill also addresses what will happen if there are certain breaches of the requirements.
Jordan noted that a standard definition of residency will be used. He said that the remigrant or settler must be living in Guyana for at least 183 days in the year, which works out to about six months. He said this is not something new but the intention is to make it clear and to bring it under one body of laws.
He said too that the qualifying remigrant must import a vehicle utilising the duty-free concession arrangement within six months of resuming residency. Noting that Guyana is a very attractive destination, he said that government, in seeking to encourage settlers, is putting them in the same bracket with remigrants.
With regards to the vehicle, he explained that it must not be older that eight years. He said that the remigrant or settler has to live for three years cumulatively in the case of a used vehicle and five years in the case of a new one. He said that these concessions are also granted to qualifying public servants and qualifying Members of Parliaments
Nandlall later noted that based on what was outlined by Jordan, the bills seeks to strengthen the regime that is in place in respect to the grant of concessions to remigrants and settlers. He said all are aware that the remigrant scheme has been the “subject of abuse and misuse and manipulation” and acknowledged recorded cases of remigrants coming conveniently and getting the vehicles “in their names but purchased by another person.” He said that in such cases the remigrant then goes back to the United States and the vehicle is left here in Guyana for the use and benefit of another.
Nandlall also told the House that when the vehicles are repossessed by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) enforcement officers, there is litigation and “all sort of technical arguments have been raised in the court and we have a series of written judgements granted against the remigrant scheme and granted in favour of persons who genuinely attempted to defraud or abuse the scheme.”
As a result, he said that there were “loopholes” in the system that needed to be corrected and the Attorney General’s office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the GRA would have reviewed all the judgements that would have been rendered in recent times and examined the deficiencies identified. “I believe that this bill captures most of that joint effort between those three agencies…the bill seeks to strengthen the remigrant scheme to prevent it from being abused hence the residence requirement that the persons must remain in Guyana for six months,” he said.
