Dear Editor,
Following the publication of a letter in the September 30, 2018 Sunday Stabroek, with the headline, “Working class Guyanese relegated to drive old vehicles”; a response was published on October 4, 2018 headlined, “Taxes have been reduced for approximately 90% of vehicles imported into Guyana”. The response contained two tables that are as confusing as cricket is to the American from Wisconsin.
The letter was signed by my friend and colleague, Commissioner-General of the GRA, Mr Godfrey Statia. Of course, the GRA article was published in the Guyana Chronicle, and headlined, “GRA debunks Nigel Hinds claims”. The Chronicle was eager to publish a response but not the original letter. I avoid sending them letters. The Guyana Chronicle’s masquerade is decades old.
The GRA letter, written in a scattered and obscure manner, leads me to think that Mr Statia did not write the letter. The stringing together of a web of words and references that are not related to the core of my contention that Guyanese are relegated to drive old vehicles, speaks for itself, and may I add – Guyanese are priced into seeking low cylinder capacity vehicles that tend to be low technology, have poor safety records, and are underlined by sub-par performance and the need for constant repairs and maintenance.
The GRA tables focused on vehicles, 2000 CC and under, disregarding the tax rates for vehicles over 2000 CC that I included in my previous letter, and which most Guyanese would love to own; relegation to third class status indeed.
The GRA letter writer, and I use this term respectfully, is apparently not the Commissioner-General of GRA, as his written submissions are of premium quality. The letter writer veers off into government’s scrabbling, mystifying and seemingly inexplicable experimentation for a Green Guyana Economy; eco-friendly vehicles such as electric, hybrid and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) vehicles. “Guyana is poised to take the lead in the region and soon implement the most modern version of the Harmonized System (2017) version of the Common External Tariff (CET)…” was another heavy-handed segue, unrelated to the essence of the subject matter; another pie in the sky.
Then, we have the oxymoronic claim that a 3000 CC “economy-class” vehicle is also a “high-end” vehicle, such as the Mazda SkyActiv. Where in the world can you obtain new or newish vehicles such as a Honda Accord or Toyota Camry for Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF) of US$7,500, as mentioned in the GRA letter, without getting the dregs and discarded vehicles from the developed countries?
GRA then proudly shows in the table, that revised cumulative taxes for vehicles under 2000 CC and less than four years old, attract a revised cumulative tax rate ranging from 65-82%, virtually double any vehicle tariff in the region. Are we Guyanese not being treated most unfairly? To quote from the GRA letter: “GRA with its limited capacity is sometimes overwhelmed…” Lo and behold, GRA is now responsible for auditing ExxonMobil’s pre-contract costs. Why are we digging government policy graves that diminishes the capacity of Guyanese to thrive?
Allow me to digress to a more personal matter due to the insinuations in the GRA letter. When I re-migrated to Guyana in November, 2011, I was granted a duty-free concession on a 2006 Lexus 330. On December 13, 2014, on my way down from the Vryman Erven Basketball Court in Berbice, I was on the verge of crashing into the elevated road median located at Perseverance Mahaica-Berbice, around 8pm, in what was a pitch-dark night. Fortune favoured me that night, as I veered off the road and smashed into a massive mango tree; three air bags inflated, two on my side and one for my friend and passenger, Linden Hunte. The technology and safety features of the vehicle saved our lives. The vehicle was virtually totalled/written off. The good neighbours in Perseverance took us to the Mahaica hospital, where our minor injuries were treated.
After having the vehicle parked in my garage for approximately one year, it was sold for $1.5M, with all the necessary documentation given to the buyer. Some two years after the sale, I was contacted by a GRA officer and told that a vehicle in my name was seized. It appears that the buyer brought in a much newer Lexus 330 from Suriname and used the number plates from my wrecked Lexus and other documents, to import the vehicle without paying the sky-high taxes. Why does Suriname pay a 25-40% tax rate? The last I saw of the Lexus imported from Suriname was at GRA headquarters in late 2017, still bearing number plates from the wrecked Lexus.
Regarding my lack of French/au fait relating to the vehicle tariffs, I will say a noose of a different size, is still a noose. Guyanese are paying world-beating vehicle tariff rates that are injurious, self-defeating and draconian to the spirit and soul of the Guyanese people. Ask the Antiguans, Surinamese, Trinidadians, Barbadians or Jamaicans, and see how we are cursed with this nonsensical vehicle import tariff rates, pre or post 2016.
Let me conclude by giving GRA the right to waive confidentiality rules relating to me, and permit publication of a ‘shame on you’ list relevant to me.
Yours faithfully,
Nigel Hinds
