REMIGRANT, Mr. Kamal Mangal, for the second time in three days, has slammed Kaieteur News for the publication of “misinformation” related to his purchase of a high-end luxury vehicle, under the remigrants duty-free concession scheme.“Kaieteur News continues to publish misinformation, lies and libel about me in their efforts to drag me into a scandal in which the owner of the newspaper is currently in. He obviously wants a partner in his criminal conduct,” Mangal, the uncle of the Attorney-General and Minster of Legal Affairs, Mr. Anil Nandlall, said, in an interview with the Guyana Chronicle.

“I have never seen a newspaper being used by its owner like this to deliberately attack people’s character and to print lies about people. This newspaper is nothing but trash. People should not pay money for trash.” – Remigrant, Kamal Mangal

The article, published yesterday under the headline ‘Duty free concessions…GRA fails to monitor remigrant…allows AG’s uncle to dodge taxes’, asserts that Mangal failed to adhere to the stipulations under the remigrant duty-free concession scheme.
However, the remigrant is contending that the letter granting him the concession says: “Please note that the above-mentioned exemption has been granted on condition that the motor vehicle cannot be leased or transferred within three (3) years of registration and providing the registration, licence, fitness and insurance are submitted for inspection at the Guyana Revenue Authority every six (6) months.”
“I have complied with those conditions and Kaieteur News is making headline stories out of a non-issue. If I have done anything wrong, the GRA is free to do what is necessary. In fact, i have imported another vehicle for which I have paid full duties and taxes. Maybe they will start writing about that too, because it seems as if anything is news for them,” he said.
Mangal added that Kaieteur News is “obviously” trying to attack the Attorney-General, through him. “I am a big man and none of my relatives, including Anil Nandlall, is responsible for my conduct. I have never seen a newspaper being used by its owner like this to deliberately attack people’s character and to print lies about people. This newspaper is nothing but trash. People should not pay money for trash,” he said.
The remigrant stated too that the Kaieteur News has cited him in at least three articles, all of which are false.
He said: “In the first article the reporter lied when they stated that I said that I don’t know that I have to live in Guyana. I never said that.
“In the following day’s Kaieteur News they published that I was not in Guyana when the vehicle was cleared. This is another lie. I was present in Guyana and I cleared an entire container which contained personal effects, household appliances and that vehicle. I was present in Guyana and hired a Customs Broker to do so.
“In the next day’s newspaper, they accused me of dodging taxes, yet another lie. The truth is, I am a remigrant and I applied as a remigrant to bring back to Guyana certain household appliances and a motor vehicle. I was qualified by the Foreign Affairs Ministry and granted the concessions by the GRA (Guyana Revenue Authority).”
Mangal currently resides at Sub-lot “A”, Plot H Delhi Street, Prashad Nagar, where his vehicle is always parked when not being driven.
The remigrant also owns several properties in Guyana, including: Sub-lot “A”, Plot H Delhi Street, Prashad Nagar; Sub-lot “B”, Plot H Delhi Street, Prashad Nagar; Sub-lot 5B part of letter “B” New Road, Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara; and Parcel 55 South Yakusari, Black Bush Polder. He also has a mortgage with a local bank, which he services monthly.

NOT COMPARABLE
Several observers have indicated to this newspaper that the publisher of Kaieteur News, Mr. Glenn Lall, is making his agenda quite clear, particularly since his case, relative to the remigrant duty-free concession scheme, is in no way comparable to that of Mangal’s.
Lall was fingered in an alleged remigrant duty-free concession scam, in August.
Six criminal charges have altogether been since filed against Lall; his wife, Bhena;, and Narootandeo and Gharbassi Brijnanan, who have all been implicated in the scam. Lall and his wife have since been arraigned on four of these charges.
The charges follow the seizure of two vehicles allegedly at the centre of a duty-free scam. The two vehicles in question, PRR 8398 and PRR 8399, were handed over to GRA and impounded at the Authority’s warehouse at the end of August, after an hours-long standoff between GRA officials and the Brijnanans’ son, Navin Sankar, a high-ranking GRA employee.
The allegation is that the Kaieteur News’ publisher used the Brijnanans, who are pensioners, to purchase two luxury vehicles and import them to Guyana under the remigrant scheme. Reports are that the pensioners are not financially positioned to purchase the two vehicles, which were allegedly undervalued by Lall in the application form. Also neither of the pensioners have ever been seen driving the two vehicles and Mrs. Brijnanan, the Guyana Chronicle understands, does not hold a driver’s licence.
As a result of several irregularities in Lall’s cases, an investigation was launched to ensure that procedures and policy of the scheme, as well as the provisions of the law were adhered to. The criminal charges, this newspaper understands, stem from that investigation.