Acting Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire SC has ordered the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) to pay Atlantic Fuels Inc (AFI) $12.8 million to cover storage cost for the 635,353 liters of diesel fuel it had seized and detained last year.
Last month the Chief Justice had ruled that the GRA and GEA acted illegally in prohibiting clearance for the importation of the fuel, thus ordering the two government agencies to immediately release the fuel.
AFI’s attorney Siand Dhurjon said that during a hearing on Monday for assessment of damages, Justice George-Wiltshire said that GRA’s Commissioner General Godfrey Statia, and Chief Executive Officer of GEA Mahender Sharma, are both liable for the storage cost to the tune of $12,825,000. The Chief Judge ordered AFI’s main director Dr. Richard Van West-Charles to be paid the sum no later than March 29th, 2021; while noting that the Revenue Authority and Energy Agency will incur a further debt of $113,500 for every additional day it continues to detain the fuel.
AFI had taken the GRA and GEA to court over the seizure and detention of the fuel it had imported on November 1st, last year, which Dhurjon said is worth over $80,000,000 in resale value.
Following the February 3rd, ruling, Dhurjon said the Chief Justice had noted that with $20,000,000 in taxes and fees having already been paid to the GRA and GEA to facilitate the marking and release of the fuel, “it was difficult to see how revenue owed to the state could be lost,” as the respondents sought to contend.
According to Dhurjon, the Court agreed with his submissions that the respondents had no power under the law to hinder or impede the importation of the fuel.
When AFI attempted to import the fuel, the GEA in a letter dated 3rd, December, 2020 indicated that investigations had revealed that the fuel was purchased from Staatsolie, a Surinamese Company, as opposed to Global Oil.
AFI said that GEA claimed to be in possession of an invoice from Staatsolie, which it said was materially different from the invoice submitted by AFI in terms of the purchaser, and the quantity of oil purchased.
As a consequence, the shipment of fuel was detained, and AFI was served with a summons to attend the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court on January 4th on a charge of “causing to be made and subscribed a false declaration to the GRA” contrary to section 217(1) (a) of the Customs Act.
AFI had disputed making the alleged false declaration, while stating that even if a false declaration was made, that did not permit the detention of the fuel.Consequently, AFI asked the High Court to grant several orders including that the respondents be compelled to release the fuel.
Dhurjon had said that when the action was filed back in December, AFI owed Falls Gas Station about $4,528,678 in storage costs, but surmised that it would have greatly increased since then to $15,000,000.
The GRA was represented by attorney Judy Stuart-Adonis, while the GEA was represented by attorney Coleen Sparman.
