The British Airways charter flight that on Tuesday brought in offshore oil and gas workers was delayed here for several hours because of the failure to pay the necessary Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) tax and was only allowed to leave after ExxonMobil gave an undertaking to pay the outstanding monies.
“Normal course of business. Undertaking must be given for outstanding taxes and the GRA was [owed],” Commissioner General of the GRA, Godfrey Statia told Stabroek News when contacted.
“I was in contact with Exxon about it since it was Exxon who was paying for the charter so they needed to have paid the tax,” he added.
On Tuesday afternoon, a British Airways 787-8 Dreamliner, the first of two charters requested, landed at CJIA bringing some 75 workers from ExxonMobil and its support companies.
But as the plane was ready to depart, this newspaper was told that it was twice delayed for revenues owed which saw it being stalled on the tarmac for several hours.
The GRA head pointed to the laws governing incoming and departing flights saying that it is a requirement for all.
“Section 3 (1) -There shall be charged, levied and collected in respect of every travel ticket a tax (hereinafter referred to as “travel voucher tax”) calculated on the fare for the journey from Guyana, the subject matter of the ticket. Section 7 – No carrier or charterer shall provide or cause to be provided to a person transportation for a journey from Guyana unless that person is in possession of a travel ticket which specifies (a) the name of that person; (b) the furthest point of travel and the ultimate destination of that person as are the subject matter of the ticket, and (c) the amount normally payable as the fare for the journey, the subject matter of the ticket,” Statia quoted.
“Section 10 (2) – A charterer shall, for the purposes of his accounting for travel voucher tax in respect of a charter flight, be presumed to have disposed of, for a journey from and to Guyana, such numbers of seats as there are for the carriage of passengers in the aircraft. Section 10 (3) – Where the charterer satisfies the Commissioner-General that the number of seats sold for the charter flight was less than those available on the aircraft for the carriage of passengers, the liability of the charterer for travel voucher tax in respect of that flight is reduced by the number of seats remaining unsold. Section 2(b) of the Travel Voucher Tax Order made under Section 3 provides as follows: in relation to a ticket issued by a charterer providing for transportation on a charter flight, the price for a ticket for that flight as provided by the competent authority in accordance with regulations made for the purposes of section 6 of the Act,” he added.
Moen McDoom Jr, the attorney representing the airline’s handling services, confirmed this saying that the company has undertaken to have the monies paid and up to yesterday was working to have the issue resolved.
“They were told that they could not leave until the 15% on the cost of the airline ticket for every passenger was paid but there were no airline tickets. It was a charter. So the plane was held up because it was a special charter and no one could guide what happens in that regard. So neither ExxonMobil, British Airways, nor the handling company knew what sums were to be paid,” he said.
Guyana Civil Aviation Authority’s Director General Colonel (Retired) Egbert Field, told this newspaper that ExxonMobil had requested permission for two charters to land; the first being on Tuesday and the other today.
Field said that he had recommended to the National COVID-19 Task force that the airports remain closed for another month; taking the period of closure to the end of June but that the company has not indicated if it will require additional charter flights.
The employees that came into the country are required to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine at a city facility where they are monitored consistently for COVID-19 symptoms. They were transported from the CJIA to the facility under strict safety guidelines.
The company has said that its offshore workers are placed at a private city observation facility, and must undergo a 14-day observation period as part of mitigation and rigid safety measures against the novel coronavirus before they are allowed to fly onboard.
“Rotational workers are being staged at this temporary facility to ensure that they are healthy and virus-free before and after they go offshore,” the company’s Public and Government Affairs Advisor Janelle Persaud had told this newspaper.
“…we also want to play our part to help stop the spread of the virus here in Guyana,” she assured.
