VAT has come to be accepted by most Guyanese
• Minister Prashad
Kaieteur News
March 5, 2007
Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Manniram Prashad reported that most Guyanese have come to accept the Value Added Tax (VAT).
This disclosure was made during a press briefing last Tuesday at the Ministry.
Minister Prashad said that the system was intended to get everyone into the tax net.
He pointed out that with introduction of VAT, businesses will not be able to cheat the tax system easily.
The Minister said that VAT is working as it should, which is what the government envisioned.
According to Minister Prashad, VAT is a major tax reform and there will be radical changes.
He pointed out that the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) had done work in preparation of the VAT implementation.
According to him, those unscrupulous business people were taking advantage of consumers.
He said that in the first two weeks in January, after the VAT implementations, there were quite a few difficulties that saw the Ministry launching a massive campaign.
As a result, the Minister said that when another survey was conducted in February, prices were coming back to normal.
Now, he said, the GRA has got the support of most business people.
Minister Prashad pointed out that GRA is on target with its revenue collection since 80 per cent of the VAT-registered businesses have met the deadline for filing returns and remitting taxes to the GRA for the month of January.
This newspaper understands that 1,674 persons out of a possible 2,100 made the submissions by the due date of Wednesday, February 21.
• “We have seen some improvement in the way businesses are conducted as far as prices are concerned,” the Minister said.