The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) has appealed to the judiciary to clear a backlog of tax cases involving in excess of $14 billion and dating back over two decades, according to Commissioner-General Godfrey Statia.
“We have written to the Chancellor [of the Judiciary] asking them to look at the backlog of tax cases because there are certain cases which are 14, 15 years old that have not been brought up,” Statia told a press conference on Friday.
Statia stated that the authority is working to get those tax cases underway, while noting that among them is a challenge by the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT), which has been ongoing since 1993.
Minister of Public Telecommunications Cathy Hughes previously noted that liberalisation of the telecoms sector has been stalled by tax issues involving the GRA and GTT. The sum in dispute is not clear but the company’s 2016 annual report said the assessments totalled US$44.1 million.
Statia also maintained that while there is an ongoing case, it does not affect liberalisation.
“To say, however, that the tax cases are what is holding up liberalisation is farther from the truth. We are not holding it up at all. We are dealing strictly with tax principles,” he said.
Noting that “discussions are actively afoot for it but we have not reached a stage whereby we have yet decided what would be the outcome of those discussions,” Statia stressed that taxes are a national asset but government still legally reserves the right to settle.
“We maintain a principled position that these taxes are due. We maintain that if we go to court, we have a fairly good chance of winning and I do not believe that negotiations should centre around taxes. That’s my firm belief. Negotiations should centre around other things that are non-principled in nature but taxation is based on principle,” he said.
Meanwhile, the authority is working with Guyana Stores Limited (GSL) to settle a $3.8 billion debt won via a court decision.
Statia noted that GSL has made a sizable down payment and discussion on a payment plan of the outstanding amount continues.
“GRA is not in the practice of taking people business and driving them out of business. We try to work along with the taxpayer for them to pay. Taking assets from a taxpayer is a last resort,” he said, in response to questions from this newspaper.
According to the agency head, many other taxpayers would have lost cases and would have spent the money in expansion and, therefore, not been able to pay the liability. “We need to have a human face in dealings with taxpayers. We rarely seize assets,” he said, while noting that just over $5 billion in taxes won through court cases remain outstanding.
