The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) says that starting June 15, a 'free ticket' would be issued to every passenger exempted from paying the airport departure tax.
According to a release from the Government Information Agency (GINA), this 'free ticket' issued by the GRA and airport authority, would represent that passenger's departure/airport tax exemption and would help curb revenue losses. The GRA recently instituted a security tax of $1,500 in addition to the departure tax of $2,500 which was in effect before. This means that passengers leaving Guyana are required to pay a total of $4,000. However, there are certain categories of travellers who are exempt from this tax: in-transit passengers and those under seven years old. In-transit passengers accounted for approximately 52 percent of the exempted passengers, while the under seven category made up 35 percent of the total.
But GRA Commissioner-General Khurshid Sattaur said ineligible persons sometimes pass through the airport under the pretext of being under the age of seven years old. And the release said that issuing the free ticket would increase compliance with regulations and ensure that additional public revenue is collected.
Sattaur told GINA that through false tax exemption grants, millions of dollars in revenue are lost.
According to the release, during the period from March to May 2004, a total of 7,998 passengers were exempted from the payment of airport tax out of a total of 53,395 persons and this contributed to at least a $31M loss to public revenue collection. About 14.5 percent of the persons passing through the airport were exempted from the payment of the airport tax.