Coping with VAT
Editorial
Guyana Chronicle
January 7, 2007
IT WOULD be a pity should the summonses served on two business enterprises last week for violation of the Value-Added Tax (VAT) now fully in force, be wrongly interpreted as a "heavy hand" from the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
In our considered view it is not and, indeed, cannot be.
The GRA would be quite aware that success in achieving what the government hopes for in the introduction and enforcement of VAT requires understanding and cooperation on all sides.
The business community in general that involves all registered -- and yet to be registered --businesses with turnover of G$10 million and more, would be conscious of how unproductive, embarrassing and hurtful it could well be should they offer resistance rather than compliance with the law.
Their interests, as well as those of the consumers, are protected with the intention that the nation as a whole benefits from the additional revenue earned from the VAT.
Since therefore, one hand can't clap, the guiding principle must be mutual cooperation, not hostility.
The VAT team spreading across the country to ensure compliance with the law needs to demonstrate patience and not arrogance in what remains a challenging education process in the enforcement of VAT.
Getting caught up in legal entanglements would only add to the heavy workload of our courts.
Those who persist in their negative attitudes toward this new tax, should be reminded that VAT is being increasingly introduced across our Caribbean Community.
Some of the criticisms and resistance in Guyana to VAT were also in evidence, initially, in CARICOM states, among them Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, where it is now the norm.
The GRA's hope for a "seamless transition" may have been optimistic, but given time VAT will also be permanently institutionalised in Guyana, as it exists, under varying forms in nations rich and poor across the world.