Legitimate businesses are being made non-competitive by several foreign-owned companies in the city who are not charging Value Added Tax (VAT) on their products though they are registered to do so.
This is according to Chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) Eddie Boyer. Boyer yesterday explained to Stabroek News that the PSC has received complaints to this effect from several of its members and sought to address the issue at a recent meeting with the Ministry of Finance.
“Concerns were brought to us where our members identified several businesses on Regent and Robb streets which were not charging VAT. A survey of these companies found that they were foreign owned,” Boyer explained. He would not identify the country of origin of these businesses or specifically identify any business against whom a complaint has been bought.
Last week, the PSC met with Minister of Finance Winston Jordan and brought the complaints to his attention. A joint press release which followed this meeting noted that the Commissioner General, Godfrey Statia, who was present, told the PSC that the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) had already written to some embassies with a view to discussing the laws of Guyana as it relates to their nationals’ tax obligations.
Attempts to reach Statia yesterday to ascertain which embassies had been contacted and what if any responses had been received proved futile as his phone went unanswered. The GRA would also be expected to make periodic visits to VAT-registered businesses to ensure that they were paying the tax. It is unclear if the GRA enforcement unit is making such visits.
In February, both the PSC and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) had called on the GRA to work to create a just system where their supervisory functions are performed efficiently and effectively.
In response to reports that local businessmen were concerned about competition from businesses owned by Chinese Nationals both organisations had said that they were more concerned about unfair competition.
“We are not ethnocentric. The issue is not competition it is unfair competition and that can come from business operated by persons of any nationality,” then President of GCCI, Vishnu Doerga told Stabroek News.
Doerga had stressed that for his organization unfair competition is a cause for serious concern noting that their aim is to operate in a level and fair playing field.
Boyer had endorsed these comments adding that the PSC has not received any complaints about unfair competition from Chinese businesses.
“It’s a non-issue for us but if there are complaints of that nature let the GRA investigate it,” Boyer said adding that there were just too many factors affecting price for him to comment on variations in price among city businesses.
He however stressed that one area where many businesses are affecting the market is by failing to charge and pay VAT.
“Many businesses are not paying VAT. GRA needs to investigate that. There are millions being lost in taxes and businesses which are paying VAT are placed at a disadvantage. We really need there to be better supervision of this aspect of the tax,” Boyer had explained.
