Govt.’s ‘fear of losing appeals’ unacceptable

Govt.’s ‘fear of losing appeals’ unacceptable – Jagdeo

Aug 14, 2016 News

Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo has taken the position that the excuse provided by the government for not appealing against financial settlement decisions, is unacceptable.
The former Head of State made these remarks during a press conference at Freedom House. Jagdeo said that it seems to be a new approach by government to settle matters, particularly when in a financial dispute with a private citizen, out of fear of losing the appeal.
Lately there have been several financial settlements between Government and private entities. One of the reasons provided for taking this route has been the fear of losing an appeal against the initial court orders.
“We heard the DDL (Demerara Distillers Limited) matter being used in parliament to excuse the settlement of the issue surrounding Haags Bosch.”
In April of this year, Government had agreed to pay BK International Inc. $1B in settlement after the company took the state to court after its contract to manage the Haags Bosch landfill had been terminated under the previous administration.
The People’s Progressive Party Civic while in office had said that the company missed deadlines and committed other breaches.
Also in April, DDL had announced that it had arrived at an amicable settlement with the Guyana Revenue Authority to resolve a longstanding dispute over consumption tax which began in 2002.

Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo

The GRA’s most recent claim against DDL for unpaid consumption taxes was $5.392B. According to Jagdeo it was DDL who took government to court several times to avoid paying taxes, dragging the matter out. He said that the coalition government settled the case for a mere $1.5B. Moreover, he opined that this will cause a liability to the treasury upwards of $60B. Jagdeo recommended that an inquiry be ordered by the President into the settlement.
He asked several questions pertaining to who would have settled the matter and whether the GRA’s Board or Cabinet played a role in the settlement. Jagdeo said that no credible answers have since been provided, except the excuse of fearing a loss at appealing the issue.
More recently, Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan told the National Assembly that the decision to settle with BK on the Haags Bosch matter was based on a series of other instances, whereby government inherited situation where it had to pay. He made reference to the DDL and Rudisa.
Rudisa Beverage Company had taken Guyana to court over an environmental tax Guyana had been charging for importing beverages. The matter reached the level of the Caribbean Court of Justice which awarded damages totalling US$6.2M to the company.
Jagdeo during his remarks on the issue advised that since ‘settling’ is the new position of Government on such financial disputes, then the ordinary man should approach the court and expect the government to settle in record time.
“If you don’t want to pay taxes then all you have to do is when you receive an assessment from GRA you should then go to court and say the assessment is wrong and after a year or two the government will settle it at less than 10% of face value.”
He reiterated that this is the position of the state when settling tax liabilities rather than applying the law.

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