Ramps Logistics CEO on $500k bail for making false declaration to GRA

Oct 22, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ramps Logistics, Guyana was on Friday slapped with 10 false declaration charges and was placed on $500,000 bail.

Shaun Rampersad, of Windsor Estate, East Bank Demerara made his first court appearance before Senior Magistrate, Leron Daly at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts in the company of his Lawyer, Nigel Hughes.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ramps Logistics Guyana, Shaun Rampersad

Rampersad denied the charges which alleged that Ramps Logistics Guyana between 2021 and 2022, at Georgetown, made 10 false declarations on applications presented to a customs officer for tax exemptions on several items. It was also stated that the logistics company falsely declared that it was the seller of several items including heavy-duty equipment, chemical compounds, and dehydrated substances.

The charges were instituted by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Law Enforcement and Investigations Division.

In a bail application for his client, Hughes informed the court that his client is not a flight risk and noted that he recently returned to Guyana to defend the company’s integrity – the Lawyer stated too that Rampersad is a businessman with assets in Guyana and overseas.

Senior Magistrate Daly granted bail in the sum of $50,000 on each of the 10 charges and the matter was then adjourned to November 25, 2022, for continuation.

Moreover, just recently, Acting Chief Justice, Roxane George-Wiltshire set the 11th of November, 2022, as the date for oral arguments to be presented in the case filed by Ramps Logistics against the Government of Guyana over its denial of a Local Content certificate.

Ramps Logistics which is originally from Trinidad and Tobago but is registered under Guyana’s Companies Act, was earlier this year, denied a Local Content certificate for purportedly not being ‘Guyanese enough.’

Last June, the contentions surfaced over the manner in which foreign companies are now using Guyanese nationals to fulfill their Local Content requirement for the company to be 51 percent locally owned.

Ramps, for instance, provided detailed information regarding Deepak Lall, a Trinidadian born with strong Guyanese roots who purchased 51 percent of Ramps Guyana for US$1M, making it 51 percent Guyanese owned.

The issue however, is that Lall’s father and grandfather are Guyanese and he, outside of the oil and gas company, has had very little to do with the country. Lall would have received his Guyanese passport in 2021. He was described as a Guyanese national, but some believe this was conveniently pursued to fulfill the 51 percent requirement.

After being denied the certificate twice, Ramps Logistics had promised to take the issue to the Courts.

According to a Fixed Date Application (FDA) recently drafted, the company has asked the Court to issue several orders including a declaration that Ramps Logistics has satisfied the statutory requirements and preconditions necessary for the grant of the certificate of registration under the Local Content Act of 2021. The FDA is also seeking a declaration that the decision of the Natural Resources Minister and/or the Director of the Local Content Secretariat and/or the Local Content Secretariat (LCS) made on June 8 2022 refusing to grant or issue them a certificate of registration is unlawful, illegal, null, void and of no legal effect – inter alia.