Ensuring that the country’s revenue earnings are protected has been no walk in the park but the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) this past year was more than up to the challenge. At least this notion was highlighted by Commissioner General of GRA,http://www.soccerpro.us.com/Atletico-Madrid-FC/, Khurshid Sattaur, during a recent interview.Commissioner General of GRA, Khurshid SattaurThrough the Revenue Protection operation of Customs, Sattaur said that efforts are not only made to detect items that can be deemed unfavourable, but to reduce the instances of tax evasion.“That area works on the principle of intelligent management. It is an Intelligent Risk Management System that is in place,” said the Commissioner General. He revealed that entries are deemed to be high risk in a sense that “if we allow it to be processed without examination you are likely to have a high level of evasion of revenue and perhaps importation of items that are inimical to the interest of the nation such as guns.”The system, according to Sattaur, operates on a random selection basis and allows for the revenue protection area to go through selected entries in detail. First the selected entries are requested then they are physically sent to the revenue protection area where all related documents are examined.Sattaur said that importers are also questioned at times if there are any discrepancies that need to be resolved. This initial process could last for about three days and once the recommended examination is completed, then the process can move to another level where additional taxes are required before the goods under review are released. But even after being released, the goods selected for examination could still be subjected to further examination, Sattaur noted.“A system like that therefore does not have all the entries or containers that come into the country subject to a physical examination. A system like that if it is working perfectly, as most systems do not…would be able to do far more effective work in a quicker timeframe and with far greater turnaround than a system that requires every single document to be examined,” Sattaur explained.He emphasised that with this system working to its maximum potential, the GRA is effectively able to raise the revenue of the country, as it entails a process where containers that are imported or exported pass through a scanner.At the moment Customs has one scanner, but there are plans to incorporate another by next year, Sattaur disclosed. This move, he said, is linked to the fact that in the near future the United States Government will be seeking to ensure that every container that leaves the local port are compliant with the maritime regulations for exporting goods. This requirement will be extended to a number of other countries.“When the time comes we will have to ensure that we fully qualify with those requirements and we have to be very compliant as well, as it relates to how we carry out our functions. So having one (container) scanner might not be enough we have to have a backup,” Sattaur stated.There are plans to bring on board a better and more superior scanner to support the current one. The GRA boss surmised that with a second scanner in place, efforts may very well have to be made towards instituting a charge for the process, a state of affairs that obtains in most countries. At the moment, no charge is incurred by exporters or importers as according to Sattaur “the cost of operating the high maintenance scanner, the labour cost and everything associated with scanning containers, is borne by GRA.”
