Khurshid Sattaur
Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Commissioner General Khurshid Sattaur has lashed out at the request made by Mayor and City Council Finance Committee Chairman Junior Garrett seeking VAT exemption from the city’s expenses.
Last week, during the council’s Gy$2.5 billion 2014 budget presentation, Garrett had claimed that the council was losing millions of dollars by having to remit all of its money in VAT to the GRA, and had called on government to excuse the entity from paying the required consumption fees.
However, when contacted on Monday, the Commissioner General said that the entity cannot be exempted, since there is no provision in the law for such.
Garrett had reiterated that the council was in no position to offset its many expenses and thought that the good deed by the government would assist in alleviating expenditure incurred.
He said that council pays in excess of Gy$40 million yearly to GRA, noting that if that money was redirected; much improvement would be had in the city.
He related that the council pays close to Gy$112,000 in VAT each month to the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T), while over Gy$300,000 is paid for fuel.
The chairman posited that the situation may not be that strenuous on other entities since it may be possible for them to reclaim their taxes. He said the council depends primarily on the payment of rates and taxes by citizens and for it to reclaim tax would require that those rates and taxes be increased by 16 per cent. That, he said would add an additional burden on the citizenry since rates and taxes were not raised for the past 16 years.
Urgent calls
The new development came on the heels of the Council’s apparent cash-strapped situation, and the urgent calls being made by the entity for stakeholders to pay up their taxes.
Among much bickering between the Mayor and Town Clerk’s offices, the much anticipated budget was presented to acting Local Government Minister Norman Whittaker, a few weeks ago. However, it was rejected on the basis of it being deficit. The minister had also pointed out that the financial estimate did not have the signature of City Mayor Hamilton Green.
The minister had noted too that there were provisions in the budget for local government elections, among other things, which according to him should not have been there.
