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Businessman wins case against GRA over wrongful classification of Land Cruiser
Kaieteur News – Businessman, Mohamed Shaw Jahan has successfully challenged the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) over their wrongful classification of his 2020 Toyota Land Cruiser.
Businessman, Mohamed Shaw Jahan and his Toyota Land Cruiser.
The Land Cruiser was classified by GRA as a passenger vehicle, attracting nearly $14M in tax and duties, when it was in fact imported by Jahan as a goods vehicle. As a result of the dispute over the classification, the vehicle was seized and kept at the John Fernandes Terminal before Jahan successfully mounted the legal challenge.
According the ruling, which was delivered yesterday at the Georgetown Court, the vehicle was inspected by the presiding Justice Damon Younge herself who declared that the goods vehicle fell under tariff heading 8704, which requires Jahan to pay only $1,871,457 in taxes and duties to have it cleared.
The judge further issued an order of mandamus compelling the GRA and its Commissioner-General Godfrey Statia to forthwith classify the vehicle as a goods vehicle and to accept the $1,871,457 in taxes and duties, which have been paid already within seven days.
Further, she ordered GRA to take all steps necessary to release the vehicle as soon as practicable and to reimburse Jahan for the costs of storing the vehicle at the Terminal. The Court also ordered GRA to stand the costs of the businessman’s lawsuit which was filed in March 2020.
Jahan was represented by attorney, Siand Dhurjon, who welcomed the ruling against the GRA and its Commissioner-General.
According to Dhurjon, the judge agreed with all his submissions on behalf of Jahan and made an order, declaring that the classification as a passenger vehicle was incorrect, ultra vires, irrational, unfair, unreasonable, null and void and of no legal effect.
“The learned judge further declared that the vehicle was a goods vehicle which fell under tariff heading 8704. Justice Younge issued an order of certiorari to quash the erroneous classification decision GRA and Mr. Statia,” Dhurjon said in a statement following the ruling.
Last April, Jahan, a businessman and cattle farmer, filed the lawsuit against GRA over the Authority’s wrongful classification of vehicle which was imported to transport goods.
Jahan, who also sells vehicle parts and spares on the East Coast of Demerara, explained that on October 30, 2020, he bought the vehicle from the United Kingdom where it was classified as a ‘light goods vehicle’. However, Jahan had explained that since its arrival on December 20, 2020, he has been unable to clear it due to the nearly $14M in duties and taxes that the GRA had required as a result of their incorrect classification.
The businessman noted too that the vehicle has since been kept at the John Fernandes Terminal and facilities incurring storage costs for months. In the lawsuit, Dhurjon made it clear that because the Land Cruiser is a special model which only has two seats, two doors, two ventilating windows, a flatbed cargo area to the rear and a barrier between the cargo area and the driver area, it is ‘exclusively qualified to be a goods vehicle’.
Dhurjon noted that any classification of the vehicle as a passenger vehicle would be an erroneous misclassification and a misapprehension of the Common External Tariff found in Schedule 1 of the Customs Act, the Harmonised System Classification Codes and the World Customs Organisation’s Explanatory Notes on the issue.
In his submissions, Dhurjon noted too that the GRA “has no written policy, guidelines or information available from their office on what features/criteria, which they would accept or deny classifying a vehicle as a goods vehicle. The officers, employees and agents of the GRA would often say what the criteria are, but would give contradictory information.”
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