News

Only a small number of people turned out yesterday in the rain for the march against the Value Added Tax (VAT) and the rise in expenses that they face as a result.

A family at Number Two Village, West Coast Berbice is still traumatized after six masked gunmen stormed their home and carted off nearly $300,000 worth of gold jewellery, $15,000, sneakers valued at $7,000 and a landline telephone.

The PPP has labelled the call by the PNCR-1G for a countrywide shutdown in protest over the two recent controversial bills laid in Parliament and the Value Added Tax (VAT) “irresponsible and reckless”.

Preliminary inquiries into several high profile murders have been put off until next month for the prosecution to seek assistance from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

A man who allegedly stabbed a horse cart operator twice at his Railway Embankment home resulting in his death was yesterday refused bail by Magistrate Gordon Gilhuys at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.

The trial of several suspects said to be connected with drug-indicted Guyanese businessman Roger Khan resumed this week in a court in Suriname, according to a report from Caribbean Net News in Paramaribo.

Justice B.S. Roy is currently hearing a case of a 77-year-old man who has approached the court asking the Ministry of Human Services to show cause why it shouldn’t release his 13-year-old bride.

It was no child’s play when a 15-year-old boy allegedly robbed two persons at gunpoint of silver jewellery and was remanded to prison by Magistrate Gordon Gilhuys.

Magistrate Fazil Azeez on Wednesday sentenced a repeat-offender who admitted to stealing several items on two separate occasions to three years imprisonment when he appeared at the Vreed-en-Hoop Magistrate’s Court.

A man who admitted to breaking into a Corentyne nursery school and stealing a number of articles was yesterday sentenced to two years in prison by Magistrate Krishendat Persaud.

A man who admitted to cuffing and kicking his elderly mother after she refused to give him food was yesterday sentenced to six months in prison by Magistrate Krishendat Persaud.

Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee said 421 persons were successfully prosecuted for possession of marijuana at a cost of $40,000 each during the period 2005-2006.

Nine prisoners broke out from the high security Mazaruni Prison yesterday and four members of a joint services search party were later shot during a confrontation with the inmates.

Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Khurshid Sattaur says the statements that the main opposition PNCR-1G made regarding the implementation of the Value Added Tax (VAT) are careless and ill-informed.

The Private Sector Com-mission (PSC) yesterday expressed deep concern over the VAT-led increase in prices and pointed to suggestions to ease the problem but Com-missioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Khurshid Sattaur says he is not prepared to support these including one to lower the 16% rate.

The Guyana Fire Service suspects arson in the case of the mysterious fire which gutted the Guyana Elections Commission secretariat building on September 9 last year.

The Guyana Elections Com-mission (GECOM) is yet to decide whether it will embark on preparations for the local government polls before establishing a new voters’ list.

From Monday, Stabroek News will be carrying a VAT corner where questions relating to the implementation of the new tax will be answered by Ram and McRae.

A speeding mini-bus yesterday plunged into a canal at Harlem, West Coast Demerara when its right rear wheel flew off, leaving one passenger seriously hurt and several others nursing injuries.

A New Amsterdam store owner has let three of his staff go as a result of reduced sales in the aftermath of the implementation of the Value Added Tax (VAT).