AFC Column – Taxing times ahead

Jun 22, 2008 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

---

By Khemraj Ramjattan

BREAK TAX LAW; GET TAX BREAK
So now the explanation is out that what was passed in Parliament, the Fiscal Enactment (Amendment) Act 2003, does not reflect Government’s intention.  This is the ridiculous excuse the Government now presents to the public, having been caught in flagrante delicto – caught in the act of breaching the tax laws.

When the Customs Officers in the Polar Beer fiasco were caught they were dismissed, charged, and prosecuted.  They may be convicted and jailed.  Their pleas that they never defrauded nor intended to defraud were denounced. This denunciation in a sense is evidenced and resulted in the employ of polygraph testing.

Meanwhile, the prime movers (whoever they are) of the grant of tax holidays and concessions to QAII, in flagrant contravention of the law, will go to Parliament to legalise the illegalities.

Indeed some are more equal than others in this Animal Farm we call Guyana. Yet these who are more equal will profess how Rule of Law oriented they are!  Shameless!  Quite frankly they should be charged under section 85 of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act No. 20 of 2003 which Parliament passed exactly for this type of illegality. 

It provides: “An official who conspires or colludes with any other person to defraud the State or make opportunity for any person to defraud the State is guilty of an indictable offence and liable on conviction to a fine of $2M (two million dollars) and to imprisonment for three years.”

This deal with QAII will see the State defrauded of minimally some $3B (three billion dollars). Maximally, it could reach in excess of $5B – both in concessions and tax holidays. The defrauders are in the Government; not at QAII. This lucky company merely put in its application and got the tax holidays and concessions.  From all appearances, it has committed no wrong. 

That is why Geoff Da Silva’s remarks that Yesu Persaud should apologise to his host was so silly. Yesu at the launch of Guyana Times never condemned his host. He never said his host did wrong or anything negative about his host. Why any need to apologise to the host then?

When high officials commit wrongs they do get scatter-brained and lash out at the wrong people for the wrong reason. And it is sometimes cleverly done to divert attention from the real culprits.  A polygraph test will vindicate what is the truth on this issue.

But then even if the guilty parties are jointly charged under section 85 of Act 20 of 2003, the charge would come to nothing.

The Finance Minister will more than likely proceed to amend retrospectively the law by putting in the words:  “an official in this section does not mean the Minister nor was it ever so meant to mean”.  And the Go Invest head will plea ignorance, a plea in keeping with his knowledge of the tax laws which he expounds to investors.

This is our Animal Farm today. It is a place where higher electricity rates are to be extracted from Lindeners who can hardly afford it, whilst concessions worth billions are handed out willy-nilly. A place where breaking the tax laws results in tax breaks!

AFC AND GAP VINDICATED IN THE COURTS ON GECOM’S ALLOCATION OF SCRUTINEER FUNDS
The Alliance For Change and its partner GAP-ROAR have been vindicated by the Guyana Court of Appeal in their demand to be formally included in the House to House Registration exercise which commenced in January, 2008. All we asked for at the time was to be treated with respect by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) by having our scrutineers remunerated in the same way as the other parliamentary parties’ scrutineers were. GECOM refused, and we were forced to seek judicial declarations as to our rights. Those rights have now been vindicated.  

The Alliance For Change always felt confident that the decision of Justice Jainarayan Singh that there be a proportionate allocation of scrutineers’ monies to the combined opposition Parliamentary parties was going to be affirmed by the Guyana Court of Appeal.

This was so because it felt that to have held otherwise would have been unfair, unjust and most unreasonable, if not wholly perverse.

The Party is thus very happy at the judgment of the Court as handed down by Acting Chancellor Carl Singh in which GECOM’s appeal on every ground argued was dismissed.

Though the determination of the case may be a victory without any prize for the AFC – the PNC and PPP having already shared out amongst themselves nearly $200 million – the Guyanese people are the biggest winners on two very important legal issues.

Firstly, the principle is now firmly established that GECOM as a constitutional entity must act fairly when deliberating on matters within its portfolio least it suffer scrutiny by our Judiciary if it does not.

Secondly, the significant precedent is now established locally that any public-spirited citizen/taxpayer will have locus standi to institute legal proceedings for remedies against any Government wrong-doing so as to ensure the upholding of the Rule of Law.

The judgment must also be seen as a stinging rebuke of the President’s ill-advised comment that monies from the public purse can be distributed as he and his Finance Minister sees fit – “at the benevolence of the Government”.

GECOM too will do well to commence a process to rehabilitate its lost credibility not only as a result of the judgment which affirms the proportional allocation of funds itself, but the condemnation by the Court which found its conduct in not responding with an affidavit in answer to the affidavit of Patterson and Franklin in the High Court as wholly unacceptable for a constitutional body of such high importance in a matter of such gravity.

This approach by GECOM in wanting to appeal a decision of a Judge it felt no reason to enter an appearance before was rightly condemned by the Court of Appeal. The AFC feels that GECOM’s behaviour in this regard was tantamount to that of a criminal suspect who holds on to his right to silence yet wants to make legal submissions.

The objective must now be to work towards a genuinely professional, independent and fair culture in this important constitutional body. 

GECOM now has no other option. The first thing that it can start doing in this regard is to request of both the PPP/C and PNCR to itemize the names of each scrutineer who worked and the days each worked and the monies paid to each and publicise this information on its website for scrutiny.

This will surely bring speculation about a creaming off of some $36M by the leaders of the PNCR and a further $40M by the leaders of the PPP/C, of the respective $100M each has so far received, to an end.

THE AFC SAYS RAISING ELECTRICITY TARIFFS IN REGION 10 IS UNCONSCIONABLE
The ALLIANCE FOR CHANGE remains totally against the government’s decision to impose higher tariffs for electricity for residents and businesses in Region 10. The ad hoc and arbitrary manner in which the PPP/C regime is approaching a very sensitive issue that affects the lives of thousands of distressed persons is nothing short of unconscionable.

When Bauxite attracted high export earnings for Guyana, the people of Linden and all Guyanese shared in the prosperity. Now that the fortunes of the bauxite industry are bleak, we expect the government to cut the Lindeners some slack.  

The years of economic decline of the industry, the resulting high levels of unemployment, the social and economic hardship that is being experienced by the citizens of this mining town, the inability of LEAP to live up to expectations to bring improvement to the overall quality of life to the Linden community, have all had an accumulative affect on the socio-economic fabric of its citizens.

Under normal circumstances, the people of Linden would not have reacted in this desperate manner over an increase in charges for electricity services. But times have drastically changed and no caring government would think of imposing such steep charges for electricity on a socio-economically battered community like Linden at this time.

How much more do we expect the people of Linden to take without raising their united voices? How much more does this uncaring government expect all Guyanese to meekly accept without seeking relief from such economic torment? The AFC supports the peaceful protest action of the citizens of the Mining Town of Linden and calls on all Guyana to support their just claim for relief in their time of need.

---

---