Clamp comes down on luxury vehicles, remigrant scheme

Nov 27, 2018 News

Finance Minister Winston Jordan has announced an overhaul of the much-criticized remigrant system for vehicles.
In his Budget Speech yesterday in the House, the Minister said that the current remigrant system is flawed and has led to abuse on a number of occasions.
Over the years, persons have come in posing as returning Guyanese and bringing in luxury vehicles, which are either sold or handed over to the true owner for a small fee.
There were instances where the remigrants returned overseas shortly after the transaction.
Tens of millions of dollars were lost to the coffers of Guyana.
According to Jordan, in order to ensure compliance, minimize, if not eliminate, the abuse, while simplifying the process, he is proposing a system of credits up to a limit of $5M for vehicles imported by a remigrant.
“With this system, a remigrant can bring as many vehicles as he/she wishes. For example, suppose a remigrant brings in three vehicles, with an assessed value of $20 million. Then the remigrant will be credited with a tax free allowance up to a value of $5 million, and would be required to pay all applicable taxes on the balance of $15 million.”

Budget 2019 has measures to target weaknesses in the remigrant scheme and abuse to importation of vehicles.

This would represent a major change from the previous practice where GRA received little.
It is likely to be unpopular for a number of auto sales companies, which have been capitalizing on the weaknesses of the remigrant system.
According to the Minister, the removal of the six-month overseas ownership will allow the remigrant the option of purchasing the vehicle locally, within six months of his/her arrival.
“This would be advantageous to the remigrant who lived in a country where driving is on the right, as opposed to Guyana, where it is on the left.”
It was disclosed that returning students who have completed at least three years of continuous study be eligible for remigrant status.