GRA takes three business houses to court
…for breaching VAT regulations
Kaieteur News
January 4, 2007
The Guyana Revenue Authority is prosecuting three business places for breaches of the law as it relates to the Value Added Tax, according to Commissioner General Kurshid Sattaur.
Yesterday, teams from the GRA went out to visit businesses in the city, and along East Coast and East Bank Demerara. Mr. Sattaur said that some of these teams met with hostility from some business owners and in a number of cases, the team members were threatened.
The threats forced Mr Sattaur to say that the very next business house to level a threat against members of his staff would be prosecuted. He said that he has already instructed the staff members to take the name of the person leveling the threat and the company's lawyers would do the rest.
He said that the laws provide for charges and the GRA would not hesitate to apply the law where necessary.
Commenting on the three business houses to be placed before the court, Mr Sattaur said that one is an eating house, one is a supermarket, and the other a hardware store. They were found to have either charge VAT without being registered to collect VAT, charge VAT on zero rated items, and failing to issue receipts to indicate the sales and the VAT charged.
He said that he expects that these three would serve as examples to others who continue to operate in breach of the legislation.
He said that as was the case yesterday, business houses continued to charge VAT on prices that existed at December 31, 2006. He said that the ideal thing would have been for these companies to remove the 30 per cent consumption tax they would have paid on that import then charge VAT.
He said that those who insist on illegal practices could mitigate their circumstances by refunding the customer monies charged in excess of what should have been legitimately charged.
In one case a business house sold goods on December 30, 2006, charged VAT on the goods, then dated the bill January 2, 2007. Mr Sattaur said that this was illegal and the GRA is prepared to investigate this issue.
He said that the company could refund the VAT charged and correct any breach of the law.
However, there has been a greater level of compliance on the part of business houses, Mr Sattaur said. He said that some companies, among them Courts, the retail giant, are removing the consumption tax before charging VAT.
Some are holding pre-VAT prices even as they prepared to pay VAT to the GRA. Mr Sattaur said that this was laudable since these companies seem intent on passing on the relief to the consumer.
He said that there is no need for businesses to fleece the customers. In the first instance, the collection of VAT is tantamount to an interest-free loan for six weeks. The collectors are not required to pay over the money until the middle of the third month after VAT is collected.