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GRA set to collect over $116 billion in taxes
– Sattaur
Despite an increase to the tax threshold, the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) is set to surpass its 2011 collection target, netting over $116 billion. This is according to Commissioner-General, Khurshid Sattaur, who revealed that last year GRA collected just over $111 billion.
An increase to the tax threshold, however, saw a noticeable dip in the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) area of collection, reflecting a shortfall amounting to in excess of $2.5 billion.
“This is not an over-taxed nation; this is a nation in which I think a lot of people do not pay taxes so we can’t confuse the two. A lot of people feel that we are over-taxed, but I don’t think that is a right statement to make.”
Sattaur insisted that the GRA has been continually striving to efficiently carry out its tax collection mandate although there is still room for improvement. He asserted that improvement does not necessarily translate to taxing people more, but to bringing those people who are “out of the net into the net” and ensuring that they pay their fair share of taxes.
This move, according to him, could even allow for Government, through the GRA, to offer “bigger” tax breaks to the entire nation.
“Everyone shares in the pie as they ought to and obviously that pie will not only increase but that pie will become more equitable in terms of the contribution to it and that is what we are aiming to achieve at the GRA.”
Commissioner General, Khurshid Sattaur
According to the GRA boss, one of the major achievements of 2012 was realised in the area of licensing, which now sees persons being eligible for licence renewal on the registration date of their vehicles. Previously, a fixed period was allotted for the purchase of licences after the passing of the national budget annually. According to Sattaur, the introduction of the new feature was accomplished mainly by the company’s Information Technology (IT) department.
He confided that initially there were some difficulties to implement the system at the beginning of the year due to the lack of legislation as parliament was in recess at the time. Nevertheless, efforts were made to efficiently put the system in place.
“We had to start on January 1…and we eventually got legislation in, so we had the legal authority to enforce it. Surprisingly it has gone very well…” Sattaur revealed.
This development, he said, has reduced the queuing time at the Revenue Office, since all relevant information is captured in the IT database. He added that “now you spend less than two minutes when previously that person would have taken perhaps 10 to 15 minutes.”
In terms of the actual vehicle sales, the Commissioner-General said that efforts are being made to keep abreast with what the statistics require of GRA in order to be au fait with the number of licence renewals necessary for a particular period of the year.
“If at this point there should be 70 per cent of people having their licences renewed we are very close to that, and that is one of the reasons that we have not yet involved the police in our campaign to enforce the sale.”
Sattaur explained that GRA has also been playing a major role in encouraging voluntary compliance by sending out mail to vehicle owners’ last known addresses as a means of reminding them to conform to the process.
Meanwhile, the GRA boss said that registering a vehicle is now a straightforward and regulatory function which also is a reflection of the work of the IT department.
According to him “there is no big deal in registering the vehicle. What has to happen is that the vehicle has to be physically inspected, that is the only reason for any delay that the registration will be subjected to…”
The system, according to Sattaur, is working fairly well, with an average of 50 vehicles being registered on a daily basis. He pointed out that even though there might be a high incidence of sales, the process is now very manageable.
“We don’t deal with more than 50 a day…We have delineated the process and we do part of it at Customs…” As a result, he noted that the process is simplified, where most of the payment takes place at the Licence Revenue Office.
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