GRA zeroes in on route used to smuggle vehicles

Dec 20, 2009 News

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Officials have confirmed that the smuggling of vehicles into Guyana is a well-organized scheme intent of robbing Government of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The revelations came as two suspected illegal vehicles, a Toyota Hilux and Chevrolet Corsa, were seized from the home of the late Minister Dr Desrey Fox.

Yesterday, law enforcement familiar with the smuggling of vehicles across the borders of Guyana, said that the seizure of the two vehicles is but a tip of the iceberg since there is a well-organized system and a ready demand for “cheaper vehicles”.

Last week, Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Khurshid Sattaur, estimated that there may be up to 500 vehicles in Guyana that used forged documents to registered them.

Officials tell Kaieteur News that this figure is way more.

Recently, a pickup seized on the Lethem/Georgetown road, was brought to Georgetown after alert Customs officials discovered that the colour on the registration was different from the actual color of the vehicle.

“GRA officials brought the vehicle and the driver to Georgetown to Customs House, Main Street. The driver of the vehicle jumped out and escaped.”

Still in another recent case, GRA is working on a taxi service in Springlands, Berbice, brought in two Toyota cars and kept them illegally using documents for older vehicles.

With each vehicle affixed with its individual number called the vehicle identification number (VIN) or as it called locally chassis number, “in many cases, these people involved would fix on VIN number from crashed or older vehicles to avoid paying the taxes.”

Berbice

In the Berbice area, vehicles entering from Suriname would use the ferry crossing and then given two weeks to return. “What happens in some cases are that the drivers who bring them across are Surinamese nationals who after delivering to someone waiting, would jump on the back track boat and return to Suriname.” So there is no evidence that the vehicle ever left Guyana.

Suriname drivers are used since they would attract less suspicion than a Guyanese driver bringing the vehicle across.

According to the official, in most cases, persons from the City would go down to Berbice with number plates and switch the Surinamese ones. The vehicle coming to Georgetown would simply disappear without a trace and later turn up at the home or workshop.

A vehicle, like the popular Toyota Carina 212, could go for as low as around $800,000 in Suriname. With payments to the driver for bringing it across, ferry crossing and minor expenses, persons are still paying way below the $2M plus cost that a car of this model would attract if purchased legally.

In the Berbice area, there have been reports that some cars are smuggled across in the dead of the night on pontoons for less than $150,000.

“It is a big problem. Unless there is an accident or police have specific information and would check the vehicles thoroughly, it is difficult to pick up the illegal ones.

Lethem

With the commissioning of the Takutu Bridge, at the Guyana/Brazil border earlier this year, the official yesterday said that there are problems in the Lethem area.

“There is a kind of arrangement that vehicles coming from Brazil to Lethem are allowed to stay for a day without having to get a permit. In Lethem there are many vehicles that have been there for months.”

According to the official, it may that while GRA would register the vehicles entering, the area lacks the capacity to follow-up on vehicles that do not return after the stipulated 24-hours is up.

“I know of one man who was driving around for eight years…eight years, in a Brazilian registered vehicle in Lethem. There is even a Brazilian-registered vehicle doing taxi work in Lethem.”

In recent years, the popular “CG” motor-cycles were rampantly stolen in Brazil and brought to Guyana.

“There were either ridden to Georgetown or smuggled aboard trucks coming to the city. But these incidents have eased considerably as local police have clamped down.”

So how do people hoodwink the system at GRA? According to the official, the record system at the GRA Licence and Revenue Office, was manual.

“What happen was there was help from staffers there. One area used was the registration of tractors. Many farmers, after the first registration where a card would have been compiled, would not return to get new road licences.”

These cards were used to issue road licences for the new, illegal vehicles, at one point in time, the official said.

However, the house of cards may now come crashing down. Recently, GRA announced that it has started computerizing the manual card system and already there are several cases where discrepancies have been found with the records.

GRA urged that persons with illegally registered vehicles to come in or face fines or even imprisonment.

A few days ago, GRA Commissioner-General Khurshid Sattaur, denied that there is corruption at the Licence Revenue Office.

Sattaur was referring to an article carried by this newspaper under the caption ‘Businessman suffers as a result of GRA Corruption – purchased unregistered vehicle’.

According to Sattaur, the article appears to be a calculated approach to deliberately tarnish the image of the Guyana Revenue Authority even as the entity takes actions to augment its systems towards the provision of better services complimented with higher levels of transparency.

The article quoted a letter from businessman Bhola Nauth, in which he stated that his vehicle was seized by the GRA despite the fact that it was being operated for the past five years on the road by its previous owner.

But when Bhola Nauth attempted to resell the vehicle in November, the GRA indicated that it was unregistered.

The GRA then proceed to seize the vehicle and demanded that the businessman pay in excess of $6M in taxes.

But according to the Commissioner-General, the steps taken to automate the systems at the Licence Revenue Office were designed to exposed unscrupulous persons who have been engaged in fraudulent practices towards defrauding the revenue payable on Motor Vehicles as well as other related criminal activities, while successfully eluding enforcement efforts.

“I wish to advise that regularization of the status of these vehicles goes without question and those persons who in the past used forged and other bogus Motor Vehicles documents to take advantage of cracks in the previous manually operated system as they hid from the regulatory authorities, will be prosecuted when found,” Sattaur explained.

He said that it is clear that the approach of this newspaper to the issue has resulted in the publication of this biased and unqualified article, which lacks the credence of proper professional investigative journalism.

“From a cursory examination of the central points of your article, there are several questions which remain unanswered and which will determine if the proper procedures for having the vehicle transferred to Mr. Bhola Nauth were followed and whether there was the involvement of the Licence Revenue Office.”

To support the initial article this newspaper was provided with copies of what appeared to be genuine documents from the Licence Revenue Office, including the new computerized Road Service Licence, two certificates of registration bearing the LRO triangular stamp as well as a receipt with a GRA stamp representing payment for the transfer of registration, signed by C. Collymore.

The transfer fee of $1000 was paid by Bhola Nauth himself in April this year.

Sattaur said that the GRA categorically refutes this position which according to him seeks to place an unjustified degrading outlook on the organization as well as to cause irreparable damage to the public image of the GRA.

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