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CCJ orders Guyana to reimburse Trini drinks company $$ millions in taxes
The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has ordered Guyana to repay a Trinidad-based beverage company, millions worth in taxes.
The CCJ granted judgment to SM Jaleel & Co Ltd (SMJ) and Guyana Beverages Inc. and
President of the CCJ, Sir Dennis Byron
ordered the government to reimburse the tax it collected between the period March 7, 2011 to August 7, 2015. The judgment would carry interest at 4% per annum from the date of delivery. Guyana was also ordered to pay 70% of the legal costs incurred by the companies.
The Court also limited the claim to taxes collected within five years of the claim, from 2011 to 2015.
The company SM Jaleel, (SMJ) had judgment handed down in their favour during a video conference hearing with CCJ and the Attorney General, Basil Williams at the Court of Appeal in Georgetown on Wednesday.
The summary judgment was handed down by President of the CCJ, Sir Dennis Byron.
In his ruling, Sir Byron held that the companies were not unjustly enriched at the expense of its customers, as customers were free to determine whether they would purchase the product, taking account of its quality and other competing products in the market place.
In the present case the Court reiterated that the tax did not promote cross-border investment provided for by the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, (RTC) Treaty but, “tended to frustrate free movement of goods, distorted competition and discriminated against the Claimants who should have been protected as belonging to the Community.”
The CCJ head made reference to a case by the Suriname company, Rudisa, in which the CCJ had ordered that Guyana refund the environmental tax amounting to more than US$6 million (GYD$1.2 billion).
“Given the Court’s decision in the Rudisa case with similar tax, SMJ and GBI are prima facie entitled to a declaration…by Guyana of the monies it should never have collected,” Sir Byron said.
In that matter, it was noted that only non-Guyanese companies were required to pay the $10 environmental tax on all non-returnable containers.
In his summation, therefore, Judge Byron said that Guyana has no basis for retaining the unlawfully collected tax. He added that “to permit this course of action would be to allow Guyana to be unjustly enriched by exploiting the trader’s efforts and by making an illegal profit out of legislation known to be unlawful.”
The CCJ President said that while Guyana had amended its Customs law to remove provisions that discriminate against companies in the rest of Caricom Single Market, the legislation did not provide for an exemption for non-returnable containers which qualify for Community treatment.
“ There was no similar tax payable in respect of locally made non-returnable containers, this giving Guyanese manufacturers a clear competitive advantage over other Caricom manufacturers, thereby, allowing discriminatory treatment to those Caricom manufacturers,” he added further.
The Court therefore ordered Guyana to pay to the companies “the aggregate sum paid by them in Environmental Tax” from March 7, 2011 to August 7, 2015 together with interest at four percent per annum from the date of judgment.
Guyana and the companies were given one month to agree to the aggregate amount to be refunded.
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