Customs head implicated in vehicle scam

May 14, 2017 News

Questions have arisen at the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) over the importation of a motor vehicle by the Head of Customs, Lancelot Wills.
Last January, Wills imported a 2008 model Toyota Harrier with an engine capacity of 2362cc. The importation of vehicles more than eight years old is prohibited.
This was one of the measures announced by the Minister of Finance in his 2016 Budget speech. Yet somehow, Wills managed to not only import the vehicle but to have it cleared on concessionary terms and registered under PVV 9800 in his name.
It is the normal practice that Government officials seeking duty free concessions must apply to the Public Service Ministry for approval. It is not usual for the Ministry to approve duty free concessions on vehicles with engine capacities above 2000cc to public servants. Rather, the permission for duty free concessions for these categories is reserved for judges and parliamentarians and remigrants.
It would also be unusual for the Ministry to approve a duty free concession on a vehicle which is more than eight years old, given the prohibitions on the importation of vehicles of this age. The only exceptions are for trucks and agricultural vehicles.
Sources within GRA are questioning whether the PSM ever approved a concession for this vehicle. They have pointed out that even if such an approval was granted, the duty and taxes paid were unusual since a flat rate of duty applies to vehicles older than four years.
Persons enjoying duty free concessions on vehicles over four years are required to pay a percentage of a flat rate of duty. In the instance of a vehicle of the engine capacity of 2360 cc, the vehicle imported by Wills, would have attracted a concessionary rate of duty of $1.8M Without the duty free concession, Wills would have been required to pay $6.5M more in duties and taxes. Despite this, Wills ended up paying a mere $184, 917 representing a 10% duty. Only remigrants enjoy this rate of duty.
Sources indicate that a number of persons within the GRA, with responsibility for processing the import documents, had raised concerns but these were countermanded by other senior persons within the authority.
Alarm is being expressed now over the fact that attempts have since being made to have the Information Technology system compromised to show that the vehicle is still being processed for clearance as of April 10, 2017.
In June 2016, Wills benefitted from accelerated promotion in the wake of a shakeup of the GRA by the Board of Directors and its Chairman, Rawle Lucas.
Contacted yesterday, Wills made it clear that there is absolutely no truth to the story of anything being wrong.
He referred this newspaper to direct all questions to GRA’s Commissioner-General, Godfrey Statia.
However, the GRA chief was unavailable.

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