I respect those who "work" at Customs; but do they respect us the business people who keep them in their jobs.
Today August 6th 2007 I'm posting letters sent to the Commissioner & the President of Guyana during Feb 2007. I never received an official document from Customs/ Mr. Sattaur. But things remain the same no matter how much time have passed and hot air (empty words) spoken. Can you imagine that customs officials can say they're not accepting email invoices and that "original" invoices must be submitted? What is an "original" or "proper" invoice in customs estimation. And that's it sir, checkmate!!! It's simple Mr. Customs Official, if you don't accept the invoices then do an examination, immediately. I mean does the broker/businessman have to beg for this. Isn't the "fast" processing of goods beneficial for all parties? Or is the delay a sadistic joy for customs.
Zamal’s
Tel: 225-9031; Fax 227-6230
Commissioner-General
357 Lamaha & East Streets
Re: Authorization for e-invoices (Very Urgent)
Dear Mr. Commissioner,
I met with Mr. I. Ali at Customs House on
Our mission is to promote compliance with
Thank you
Zamals Software Co.
Zamal’s
Tel: 225-9031; Fax 227-6230
His Excellency, Mr. Bharat Jagdeo
President of
Re: Very Urgent (The Clearance of Goods at the Airport)
Dear Mr. President,
Is Customs set up to hamper/destroy legal businesses? A short question to an issue that has dire consequences for my business, my family and good old-fashion honesty, as well as how this beautiful Cinderella country of ours is turning into the wicked witch. And consequences also for the timely collection of taxes on which government runs.
Even though I write about “my” business and the frustrations in clearing goods at the airport Customs, I’m sure that many legal businesses are in the same boat (please see the newspaper clipping for similar business anguish). So the reality is that I write for those of us who are honest and are being strangled by those who profess to be professionals but who don’t practice what’s in their mission statement.
GRA’s mission statement on their website:
Our mission is to promote compliance with
Sir, based on the frustrations encountered by my small computer business in trying to do business in a law-abiding way, these frustrations cannot be viewed as “contributing to the …social well-being of the people of
For ten years I have been purchasing via the Internet using my credit cards.
Step 1: Purchase goods via the Internet (no problems, no headaches)
Step 2. The goods arrive in
Step 3: The goods is sent via Amerijet/Jetpak to the CJI aiport. (Major Problems and headaches begin with Customs) especially this year 2007.
Step 4: a. For years HAB delivered my goods to my door having paid whatever duties (something that I made sure I told them…never do any weird stuff with my goods).
b. HAB then could not clear due to restrictions at Customs (restrictions in the way of different documents (C72) having to be filled. Now, I was unaware of Customs regulations as HAB use to deliver my stuff with all legal documents. As I had to get brokers to fill in the forms I begun to understand the “system.”
So this is where my goods get “stuck” “held up” or “seized” by Customs.
Here are the excuses I have heard from my broker:
- The computers are down.
- The system is slow.
- Planes are on the ground therefore there are no officials to deal with goods in the bond or at Customs.
- Major PROBLEM: They are not accepting email invoices (they accepted it for 10 years without any problems)
- They will do a C-21(manually check the items)
- They will do nothing (here’s where I had to go to Customs.) Please see letter addressed to the Commissioner General. The CG keeps saying on TV anyone with problems should go in and see him but all I get from his secretary is “write a leeter; which I did).
- They won’t accept a price of an item and then put their own exorbitant price (how in heavens name can this be “professional” “legal” or “right.” This reeks of Customs behaving like the criminals who rob us. Yes, Mr. President, this is definitely criminal activity by Customs.
- By this time many days are being LOST. Productive days, Sir. Can a country run by you accept such sloppiness. After 18 years in business and paying our dues to the State, to be treated like dirt, like horse manure, by Customs is shocking.
Just as how you campaigned for votes to get the job to be the leader of this country, this letter is a campaign for you to exercise the trust reposed in you to stop the following:
- The delay of goods (there’s a reason we fly computer parts into the country; we need it in a hurry to get work done, to make
- The random “fixing” of prices by Custom officials (on what grounds do they do this????) If price fixing by businessmen is wrong then so is price fixing by Customs officials. In these days of instant communication via the Internet how hard is it to verify prices by going to the website and using their eyes? I cannot understand why if the officials “doubt” the prices on the Invoice, it cannot “quickly” be verified online. Why do they have to arrogantly reject your invoice and leave you traumatized as you run around in Customs trying to “sort” matters out with very unfriendly people.
- We use sites like Froogle.com, Pricescan.Com and Pricewatch.com to source low prices. Doesn’t this make sense? How then can Customs decide that our prices are too low and raise it to suit their desires. Ridiculous!!!
- They are holding onto goods that are not theirs and displaying behaviour that is exactly that of a schoolyard bully. Without the quick movement of goods countries cannot develop. By the way countries can never develop by the passing of bribes. Customs officials that take bribes are no different than those who brandish AK47s.
- And they leave you gasping for air as they say that they want legal invoices not email invoices. My God, isn’t this the way that business is run in the world today (email).
- If they cannot accept email invoices (and verify them online) then I think that GTT should not only block VOIP but block us business people from viewing business sites like Newegg.com, Amazon. Com, Buy.com etc.
Mr. President, my life & my family could be threatened but that’s ok. Customs is currently threatening my legal livelihood in their arrogant disrespect for honest people and of dealing with a digital world in a nonsensical approach, using a backward & third-world mentality.
An urgent response is needed as my credit cards are charging high interest and late fees as the delay of clearing my goods is having a huge negative impact on my life.
Please respond urgently. Call 225-9031 and ask for Shamal. I would like to meet with you to answer any questions.
Thank you
Note 1: My credit cards are accruing interest and late fees because of these delays. Two pages of Customs forms has taken from Feb 13th to Feb 26th (2 weeks) to process. This is unacceptable. And I still have not received my 10 small boxes of computer parts.
Note 2: The persons working for your government at the Airport Customs are causing a loss of revenue to your coffers. I should have ordered at least 3 more orders with taxes for your government…see the losses, Mr. President both in money and time and work delayed. Some of the computers that we manufacture are for government institutions like GNSC and GNPL. Is manufacturing or assembling high-quality computers a crime? Should we become “illegal” vendors joining the thousands who illegally do business on the streets of
Note 3: Are the millions that we pay in taxes not “good” money?
Note 4: I work seven days a week just to see that my son can be properly educated. And my wife and my mother cared for…I hope that the Commissioner & you, Sir, think that those are noble goals worth striving for honestly.
M.S. Zamaluddin
Zamals Software Co.
I’m really sorry for some of the emotions displayed in some of the sentences. They were other more vulgar ways of expressing them but I kept them in check. Just for one moment, Mr. President, try to empathize with a man whose livelihood is being violently yanked from him and bills are piling up and what stands between him and begging is a non-cooperative Customs.
Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions
| New system for clearing goods introduced at airport Johann Earle |
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| The Guyana Revenue Autho-rity (GRA) has introduced the long-awaited ASYCUDA clearing system at the Timehri airport and this caused some inconvenience as importers had not been advised beforehand. Universal Bookstore owner Ovid Holder said he and other book and magazine importers had to return from the He said that officers of the Customs and Trade Adminis-tration (CTA) of the GRA told him and the others that they could no longer use the Customs C-14 baggage declaration form for the clearance of books and magazines and they would now have to use the C-72 Customs entry form. According to Holder, this means that the importer now has to pay a broker to prepare the customs documents and to expedite them through the ASYCUDA (Automated System for Customs Data) that has been set up at the airport. With the system, the importer would not need to process documents at Cus-toms House in Holder said the magazines that he brings in for his bookstore are time-bound. He said there was no form of communication whatsoever on the new system and nothing was put in the newspapers to this effect. Holder said he called the office of the Commissioner General of the GRA Khurshid Sattaur and was told to wait. Holder said he was then asked to call the Remissions Unit of the GRA and this he did. But the person there told him that he was not aware of the change. Commissioner General of the GRA Sattaur told Stabroek News that because the agency introduced the ASYCUDA system at the airport, the decision was taken to disallow the use of the C-14 form for the clearance of commercial items. He said the decision was taken to ensure that there is a level playing field for persons bringing in cargo either by air or by sea. Sattaur said too that the new system will ensure that there is adequate documentation for goods of a commercial nature. According to the Commissioner-General, the use of the C-14 for the clearance of these goods did not afford the necessary checks and balances. "We sought to remedy that by implementing the ASYCUDA system there and the facility to process all of the paperwork at the airport," he said last week, adding that with the ASYCUDA system, the invoice, airway bill and other supporting documents must be provided. He said airport-to-airport items are really suitcases left behind on flights and these would be cleared using the C-14 forms. He said too that the magazines that the importer would bring in from time to time exceed the stipulated value ceiling on the C-14 form. He added that the airport is a major point of entry for Holder said that after sitting with the customs officials and explaining the inconvenience of not being properly notified of the new system, he was allowed to clear the books using the C-14 form. C-tax on reading material Further, Holder is also peeved about what he called government's levying of a Consumption Tax on reading material. "This is reading matter," Holder said in frustration. "This [increase] has sent the prices up. We are charging Consumption Tax for reading," he added. On this he has spoken to President Bharrat Jagdeo and the Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon, both of whom promised to look into the matter. But Sattaur explained how it was that importers are asked to pay a Consumption Tax. He said that prior to the passage of the Fiscal Enactment Act of 2003, the Minister of Finance had granted through an ST Letter the remission of Consumption Tax on reading material. The Commissioner General said that with the passage of the Fiscal Enactments Act, all ST letters were cancelled and the duty and taxes according to law must apply to them. "There is no provision in the Schedule to give relief to reading material and as such the full duty and taxes must be paid. We cannot give relief by way of exemption anymore. We have to give according to the law," he said. On the charging of a fee of $100 per entry for the processing of the C-72, Sattaur said that this is a notional value for the use of ASYCUDA. He said that the ASYCUDA system is not designed to recognise a zero value and therefore a nominal value has to be placed. He said that in some Caricom countries the processing fee is up to 2.5% the value of the items being declared on the entry. He said that he could have set the processing fee at $1000 per entry but settled on $100. The Commissioner General said the GRA would now be using the full extent of the ASYCUDA system to maximise revenue collection and to bring a level playing field for all importers of commercial items, whether by air or sea. According to the ASYCUDA website, ASYCUDA is a computerised customs management system which covers most foreign trade procedures. The system handles manifests and customs declarations, accounting procedures, transit and suspense procedures. ASYCUDA generates trade data that can be used for statistical economic analysis. The ASYCUDA software is developed in |
| GRA annual report for 2003 laid in Parliament - cites revenue lost through tax evasion |
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| The Guyana Revenue Autho-rity (GRA) 2003 annual report was laid before the National Assembly on Thursday, even as concerns were raised about the subject minister's inability to ensure that this happened before. The annual report, the first ever to be laid in the House, was available to parliamentarians and members of the media on Thursday prior to the commencement of the session. The presentation of the GRA's accounts to the National Assembly is a requirement of the Fiscal Management and Accountabi-lity Act of 2003. Columnist and Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram made the point in a Business Page article two Sundays ago that five years after the GRA has been in existence and despite several reminders the Minister of Finance has failed to table a single annual report. Ram called this a breach by the Finance Minister "of one of the showpieces of the government's boast of accountability and transparency which are the edifice of the rule of law and good governance." Approached for a comment, Commissioner General of the GRA Khurshid Sattaur said the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Audit Office (AO) scrutinised the accounts of the GRA on a frequent basis. "Every year we have audits. We have to go to the PAC and the AO," he said, adding that this was in accordance with the GRA Act. According to the annual report, revenue leakage continued to be a problem for the GRA in 2003 despite efforts by the government to minimise such loss. "The large informal sector in It added too that the Fiscal Enactment Amendment Act of 2003 sought to address this problem by the introduction of presumptive tax - a tax on service - and by raising the fee for compliance certificates for professionals. "The expected revenue benefits to be derived from this Act were hampered with the passing of a Court Order preventing the commissioner general from implementing certain aspects of this Act," the report said. According to the GRA, revenues continued to be lost through cross-border smuggling. It said the lack of adequate computerisation to facilitate reliable record-keeping also contributed to the loss of revenue. For the year 2003, total revenue collection was $41.55 billion, representing a shortfall of 0.95 billion or 2.2% from the approved budget of $42.5 billion for 2003. Compared to the actual total revenue in 2002, revenue collected in 2003 increased by 0.75 billion or 1.8%. The report said several investigations were conducted at the request of the Commis-sioner General. "These investigations, which amounted to seven, were related to alleged fraud by importers and allegations against staff," the report added. The Enforcement, Intelli-gence and Quality Review Division of the GRA during the reporting period provided the necessary investigations, enforcement, and intelligence programmes aimed at promoting compliance with the Customs and border laws of This section was said to have received and investigated 146 reports of breaches of customs laws and a total of 100 persons were apprehended for such breaches compared to 90 persons in 2002. According to the govern-ing board, change seemed to be the major theme for 2003. In June of that year the Governing Board of the GRA was reconstituted with the appointment of a new chair-man and from | ||
| CCTV sees Customs officers 'behaving' - Sattaur | ||
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| Constant closed circuit surveillance of all Customs operations has seen Customs officers "behaving themselves", Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Khurshid Sattaur said and as a result he has a little more faith in them. But he said the general public, whom he cannot yet spy on, is still conniving with Customs staff and because of this "old habits die hard." He said if members of the business community still extend bribes to customs officers then there will always be a modicum of nefarious activities. He said there have been occasions where allegations of impropriety were made and the closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras were used to either confirm or disprove these. He said the tapes provided evidence to other agencies like the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) investigating criminal matters. The GRA has invested heavily in a sophisticated CCTV system that is installed in and around all customs wharves, warehouses and at the airport. This system is controlled by Sattaur himself who - from his In testifying to the worthiness of the cameras, Sattaur said that just this week, a cement importer prepared documents for an imported shipment of the commodity and tried to short-change the Customs and Trade Admin-istration (CTA), The Commissioner General said that though criminal charges were not likely to be filed, the GRA would institute a prohibitive fine against the importer. Sattaur said even if there were no nefarious activities, the cameras serve to keep customs officers on their toes when it comes to the Standard Operating Procedure for the performance of their duties. After an armed robbery last year at Customs House during which the blurry image of a man was captured on camera, the GRA had broadcast the image, much to the chagrin of the Guyana Police Force. It turned out that the man caught on camera was at Customs House conducting legitimate business at the time of the incident. Two Customs officers were subsequently charged with the armed robbery. |
| Taxpayer ID will assist in detecting evasion, money laundering - Sattaur |
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| When the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) is fully implemented, the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) will have full access to information in the custody of various government departments and could use this to assist in detecting tax evasion and possibly money laundering. And Commissioner General of the GRA, Khurshid Sattaur, said that if there is suspicion of nefarious activity, the GRA could select a taxpayer for auditing. Sattaur said that when the new money laundering legislation takes effect, the GRA would have the capability to carry out investigations when prompted to by the other responsible government agencies if they had strong suspicions of money laundering. He said these investigations could very well lead to the forfeiture of assets. In time, he said, the TIN system will also allow the GRA to monitor taxpayers' activities in banks, and it will make administering the Property Tax Act easier. With the advent of the TIN system, all transactions to be done with any government agency or department will require that the person be the holder of that number. He said this would give the GRA access to any transaction that the taxpayer might have engaged in. He said all agencies would be able to transfer the data to the GRA and that data would have tax implications. Sattaur said the GRA would have to have a good system to ensure that the information could be put to use. He said that for people to get their TIN they would have to be registered with the GRA. "We are widening the net... persons doing business with these government agencies were not required before to have the number, now they are," he said. "We will have information as to all their transactions. This will hopefully give rise to a level of awareness that such data is resident with the GRA." He said the GRA would be able to verify information submitted in tax returns by using the data that the new system makes available. He said if persons are aware that the GRA is in possession of their personal information they would seek to ensure that their declarations are what they should be. The GRA is to devise a system to use the information to pursue persons who seek to evade payment of their fair share of taxes. Sattaur said that for this to work, the GRA would bring on board new IT systems to support the new software. He said the system is geared to detect under-reporting of taxes and assets. According to Sattaur, people with large assets who don't make disclosures will be detected by the system. In order to clamp down on false declarations and the omission of assets and income, the GRA will be using statements from banks and performing net worth analyses to make comparisons. The GRA collects taxes from businesses and individuals without regard to whether the person or business acquired their gains through illegal means. An accounting partner is of the view that the use of the net worth analysis could prove instrumental in the fight against money laundering if properly employed. Rakesh Lachana, one of the partners of Ram and McRae, said in an interview that agencies such as the GRA could look at a company's balance sheet and determine if financial dealings are in line with the stated income. He said the same could be done for an individual who might be filing tax returns on an annual basis. A month-to-month assessment of the balance sheet could be done to determine whether there are any significant changes. "You have to compare the two to see what movement happened over the year." Very often, he said, one would find large buildings going up in the city and yet there is no reflection of those funds in the financial statements of the companies or persons involved. In some cases owners claim to have made a cash injection into the business. He said the question to be asked is where this money came from and if this question cannot be satisfactorily answered then this is cause for suspicion. This is where the GRA's focus must be, he said, in addition to looking out for tax evaders. But he feels the GRA may be of a mind to levy taxes on stated income. Lachana said the GRA could look at the income of the person declared for the year as against their net worth. Lachana believes that a useful strategy would be for the GRA to look at the balance sheets of ten or 20 of the biggest companies and ask for a list of their suppliers. He said the GRA could then take that information and check it against the reporting of the suppliers. Once there is no money being filtered then the information should correspond. The bulk of money-laundering funds in TRIPS will allow taxpayers and the revenue authority to interact directly via the Internet, allowing taxpayers to register for taxes, submit declarations and payments electronically, access public information and enquire on the status of accounts, or the progress of goods through Customs. The software will be able to detect instances of money being 'splashed' in the putting up or the acquisition of large properties. It is designed to prompt the GRA when such telling information surfaces. New money laundering legislation is to be brought to the National Assembly some time after the restart of Parliament. The new legislation would seek to have greater control over money transfer operations as it integrates the additional nine recommendations against terrorist financing. The law will mandate money transfer companies to get originator information. The bringing of this new legislation into effect will be the force giving 'teeth' to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) which had been set up to monitor and apprehend those businesses and individuals involved in filtering the proceeds of crime into the economy. The FIU has been largely dormant since it came into being. The Bank of Guyana, the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance and the GRA are some of the reporting agencies in the fight against money laundering. These agencies would have to sound the alarm in the event that suspicious activity is detected. The recommendations in relation to the reporting of suspicious transactions and compliance state that if a financial institution suspects or has reasonable grounds to suspect that funds are the proceeds of a criminal activity, or are related to terrorist financing, it should be required, directly by law or regulation, to report promptly its suspicions to the FIU. They state too that financial institutions, their directors, officers and employees should be protected by legal provisions from criminal and civil liability for breach of any restriction on disclosure of information imposed by contract or by any legislative, regulatory or administrative provision, if they report their suspicions in good faith to the FIU, even if they did not know precisely what the underlying criminal activity was, and regardless of whether illegal activity actually occurred. According to the recommendations, these persons should be prohibited by law from disclosing the fact that a suspicious transaction report or related information is being reported to the FIU. |
Curbing corruption
The report "In
Many officials demanding bribes, and many businessmen paying them, are disgusted by what they do, but feel that they have no choice. Their disquiet arises in part from a growing awareness of the damaging effects of corruption. In addition to inflating costs, bribery distorts planning decisions, undermines quality, weakens professional standards, reduces morale and suppresses economic growth. Corruption not only thrives where there is poverty, but also causes poverty. In developing countries, corruption literally kills.
In
Hamish Goldie-Scot,
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