The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) is continuing to assess dozens of Investment Development Agreements (IDAs) signed before the tenure of Commissioner-General Godfrey Statia in 2016 and has found that many individuals and companies have robbed the state of hundreds of millions in taxes.
“We are constantly looking at them to see if they are keeping their end of the bargain. We have been finding lots and lots of irregularities because persons have not been using their IDAs for the purposes in which they were given. They have been breaching it in one way or another,” Statia told the Sunday Stabroek in an interview.
“For instance, in some IDAs you see persons getting vehicles, high-powered vehicles that have no relevance to their projects… robbing the state of hundreds of millions and I’m not talking about the ordinary man, these are businessmen and companies that can afford to pay the taxes,” he added.