Guyana Revenue Authority aims to stop tax cheats and collect GUY$135.3 billion

The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) says it intends to undertake public education campaigns to get taxpayers to meet their obligations as it intends to collect GUY $135.3 billion (One Guyana dollar =US$0.001 cents) in taxes this year.  GRA Commissioner General Khurshid Sattaur said efforts would be made to get taxpayers to meet their obligations “voluntarily” through recently introduced innovations such as online banking.

But he said despite calls for the new initiatives, tax payers were still lagging behind in their payments.  “The poor showing suggests that the tax payers were maybe playing games with us. We’ve only had about 50 transactions so far with remote services provided to tax payers.  It is either through the telephone, they can call in, having set up their account of course, call in to Republic Bank or they can go online to Demerara Bank and make their respective payments for any taxes. We’ve had just two persons doing that, I happen to be one of them”.

Sattaur said a money transfer facility operated with support from Western Union has had a little more success with at least 50 persons using this service.  Despite these setbacks, Sattaur said the GRA is still persevering with its efforts and that the GRA was even considering paying part of the GUY$100 fee charged by the banks for the transaction.

Sattaur said the GRA was also looking into the possibility of having tax payers file their returns on line and that a contract has already been signed to facilitate this feature which he described as “a major accomplishment”.  Several companies are currently before the courts for tax evasion and the GRA official said some companies are now subject to bankrupt proceedings.

He went on to say, “I have to make these things public because a lot of these employee who work for these entities are not even aware that their employers are tax cheats!….and when they think they have a safe employment, the next thing they may wake up to find that, in the newspaper, that their employer is taken to court for bankruptcy proceedings”.