No bogus duty-free letters from Finance Ministry -Rekha
By Johann Earle
Stabroek News
December 31, 2003
Secretary to the Treasury (ST) in the Ministry of Finance, Neermal Rekha, is calling for evidence to substantiate allegations that officials of his ministry have issued fraudulent ST letters.
In an interview with Stabroek News yesterday, Rekha said that he is prepared to hand over all records to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), as he is confident that the ministry has done nothing wrong.
A source within the GRA had told Stabroek News that the body is investigating what appears to be the fraudulent issuance of ST letters. The source said that ST letters have been issued to persons who were not entitled to them and some of these letters did not have any expiry dates. The letters were used for the clearance of goods, wholly or partially duty-free, although that form of concession was made invalid on September 1, as a consequence of the Fiscal Enactments Act.
Rekha does not deny issuing ST letters, but said that this was prior to September 1. He said, too, that he has to check them to see whether or not they had expiry dates.
In a press release issued on Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it had no authority to pronounce on the concessions to be granted to remigrants, nor did it have any mandate to issue letters for duty-free concessions pertaining to applicants' personal effects.
All the ministry does is certify that persons are eligible, after which they approach the Ministry of Finance. The ministry was responding to a report in a section of the media which suggested collusion between officials of that ministry and the Ministry of Finance to fraudulently issue the letters.
Rekha said too that it was customary for approval letters issued for the importation of industrial items not to have expiry dates because of the provisional nature of such imports which can be delayed for months for various reasons.
He said that some of the letters, which relate to the importation of a car or bus, are valid for three months, but letters for remigrants can be valid for six months. "We are not denying the concessions issued in July up to September. In some of the cases the letters were extended by three months," he said. "We are satisfied [about] the letters that we issued and we stand by those."
He said that one of the reasons letters would be changed is the oversight where the cylinder capacity of a car's engine might have been wrongly stated, and the letter issued has to be amended.
"[We have issued] no ST letters since September 1. We do advisory notes to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) [because] we have the institutional record of the applicants," he said, emphasising the fact that his ministry no longer issues ST letters.
He said that he is not aware of any investigation into the alleged scam. Rekha said that there is a mechanism within the ministry for dealing with "such things", but he was not officially advised as to any investigation or the status of it. He has discussed the matter with Minister of Finance, Saisnarine Kow-lessar, and the ministry's Director of Budgets, Dr Ashni Singh.
Earlier, Commissioner-General of the GRA, Khursid Sattaur, told Stabroek News that an investigation was ongoing into the matter. He said yesterday that a full disclosure will be made to the public upon the completion of the investigation.
Sattaur had told Stabroek News that his agency has not been affected by the investigation and the issuing of Commissioner-General (CG) letters is continuing. He also said that there are good checks and balances within the GRA system to detect irregularities when they surface.
Sattaur told Stabroek News that he was aware that such fraudulent practices have been occurring for a long time.