A mid criticisms for government refusing to lower the rate of the Value Added Tax (VAT), Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Commissioner General Khurshid Sattaur said he has not seen any case to justify such a move.
GRA Commissioner General Khurshid Sattaur
Airing his views on a TVG programme titled “Under the Microscope” on Monday, April 2, Sattaur said a reduction in VAT would not benefit persons whose income are below the threshold since the items they consume on a daily basis do not get taxed.
In defence of the tax, Sattaur said all commentators who have been pontificating on the tax system fail to explain how a reduction in the VAT rate would improve the circumstances of the average wage earner. By increasing the income tax threshold, the government has placed more purchasing power directly in the pockets of all Guyanese earning over Gy$ 40,000 per month, said Sattaur.
However, the GRA’s VAT enforcement officers currently find it difficult to police the system against unscrupulous businesses which continue to offer “not to charge the VAT” in exchange for not issuing their customers with a receipt.
These businesses commit an illegal act and with the cooperation of their unsuspecting customers, they also evade their income tax obligations by under disclosing their sales, Sattaur complained. Sattaur charged consumers to educate themselves on the issues.
Meanwhile, in analysing the recently presented Gy$ 192.8 billion budget, Private Sector Commission Chairman Ramesh Dookhoo expressed the view that Guyanese should not expect the worst to take place in Parliament when the debates unfold, and the estimates are considered.
He said that he wanted to believe that there were “well intentioned politicians” on the side of the opposition, noting that they should be allowed to make technical agreements, objections and criticisms where they see fit.
The private sector, he said was looking forward to good debates that would support and reenergise the means through which government should pursue its developmental agenda.
“We want to see a democratic Parliament work and that’s the essence of our democracy,” Dookhoo said.
He played down the “gridlock banter”, and said it was refreshing to hear Opposition Leader David Granger declare that the opposition does not want what he referred to as a “car crash”. Dookhoo said that the private sector was doing its own detailed analysis of the budget, but emphasised his satisfaction with the performance of the private sector which is reflected in the continuous growth and development of the Guyanese economy.
No gridlock
Minister within the Finance Ministry Juan Edghill, who also appeared on the programme, said the government remains confident that the budget as presented, deals with several of the issues which are integrally linked to the country’s developmental aspirations.
He argued that the budget also addressed the concerns and needs of organised labour, senior citizens and several other sectors in the country’s economy which are poised to receive further assistance.
“We don’t expect gridlock over the budget because we have presented a realistic and workable budget to the people of Guyana within the right framework that would see our developmental gains being sustained and further enhanced,” he opined. The minister said that government expects a higher level of scrutiny and objectivity from opposition parliamentarians when the House is dissolved into committee status, and each item is examined in detail because of the current buoyancy of the combined opposition.
“This is good and it means that our democracy works,” Edghill remarked, explaining that systems for checks and balances, accountability and transparency have always afforded the opposition this sort of freedom to question ministers of government and other officials about important documents such as the national budget of proposed estimates.
Edghill did admit that he does expect as well the usual rhetoric and sometimes undue criticisms to be made about the proposed projects and estimates as presented in the budget, noting that the opposition seeks to speak to their constituency in an attempt to score cheap political points.
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