Businessman Mohamed Shaw Jahan has filed a suit against the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) to have a Toyota Land Cruiser he imported be classified for commercial use and not as a private passenger vehicle.
The implication of the classification by the GRA, he says, requires him to pay almost $14 million in taxes, as opposed to $1.8 million if the vehicle is classified for the transport of goods.
Saying that he cannot afford to pay the large sum, Jahan is asking the court to make a number of declarations and grant him several orders, including to prohibit the Commissioner General from making any assessment of duties or taxes payable in respect of the vehicle under what he says is “the drastically higher taxation scheme applicable” to a vehicle principally designed for transporting people.