Tax fraud charges against Lall, others dismissed – Auditor General assures his investigation continues
Glenn Lall
Glenn Lall

MAGISTRATE Judy Latchman, on Friday, dismissed the tax fraud charges against Kaieteur News publisher, Mohan “Glenn” Lall, and three others, who were fingered in an alleged remigrant duty-free scam.Neither Lall, nor his wife, Bhena Lall, Narootandeo Brijnanan and his wife, Gharbassi Brijnanan were present in court.
Lawyers representing the Guyana Revenue Authority, the prosecution, indicated yesterday that it was no longer interested in pursuing the matter. The defence welcomed the move.
Sources close to the matter confirmed that a settlement has been agreed, hence the move to withdraw the case, but noted that the agreement is a “confidential” one, since it involves personal tax information.
CONFIRMED SETTLEMENT
This was confirmed by the GRA, in a statement which stated that the Authority has agreed to accept compensation in lieu of or in substitution for proceedings in a court of summary jurisdiction in-keeping with the provision of Sections 36 and 271 of the Customs Act Chapter 82:01.
The body’s Commissioner General, Khurshid Sattaur noted that tax offenders have the prerogative of settling matters out of court, which is provided for in law to avoid severe penalty which could include imprisonment.

Narootandeo Brijnanan
Narootandeo Brijnanan

“After some discussions, we were agreeable with the proposal put before us, as we are more inclined to amicable resolutions rather than litigious ones. Notwithstanding, we are prepared to go the distance to protect tax revenues,” he said.
He added that as part of its vision and mission, the organisation seeks to first promote voluntary compliance to ward off enforcement action.
“Even when enforcement action becomes necessary, the Authority seeks an approach that lends to achieving efficiency and certainty in the tax dispute resolution process. In this case, like others, we have chosen the traditional method of alternative dispute resolution which is less costly, less time consuming and is not resource depleting,” Sattaur said.
The Commissioner-General further pointed out that the current laws are not stringent to allow for prosecution as weaknesses developed because the Scheme is governed more by policy rather than law. He said that recommendations were sent to the policy makers to have certain set of laws amended to strengthen the conditions to be satisfied before and after remigrant status is granted.
The GRA also bemoaned the media attention directed towards the matter and highlighted that this is one reason that forces “out of court” settlements.
“The organisation notes the article which appeared in the Guyana Times of Friday January 6, 2015 and wishes to advise that too much media publicity in tax matters that require some degree of confidentiality can negatively impact such cases, and force persons to resolve matters out of court by way of compensation, when they are found to be in contravention of the Act or any regulations made thereunder,” the Authority’s Head noted.
Sattaur stressed that the Authority will continue to do its part to protect the integrity of its operations.
WORK UNAFFECTED
Meanwhile, Auditor General, Deodat Sharma, told the Guyana Chronicle that the GRA’s move does not affect his holistic investigation into Guyana’s remigrant scheme; his investigation continues.
Sharma told this newspaper that more than 20 persons are under review.
To date, he has forwarded two reports to the Board of the GRA, through which the Authority had requested an investigation.
The auditor general added that the investigations that were done into the Lalls/Brijnanan case were not done by his office.
The general investigation by Sharma did, however, follow the investigations that led to charges being brought against the four, which came after the disclosure of details of the alleged duty-free scam, which were first made public by the Guyana Chronicle after a close examination of the Government of Guyana’s review of the Remigrant Scheme.
The four persons were subsequently slapped with six charges altogether, to which they had pleaded not guilty. The Lalls were arraigned last October, while Narootandeo Brijnanan and his wife, Gharbassi Brijnanan, were charged last month. All four were released on their own recognisance
The Brijnanans were represented by attorney-at-law, Robin Hunte. He is part of the legal team representing Lall and his wife. The defence was represented by other high- profile lawyers, some of whom are also prominent politicians. In addition to Hunte, the list of lawyers includes Khemraj Ramjattan, Senior Counsel Rex McKay, Nigel Hughes, Christopher Ram, Joseph Harmon, Brendan Glasford and Bettina Glasford.
Representing the prosecution were attorneys-at-law Sandil Kissoon and Mahendra Satram.
Under the remigrant programme, Guyanese who have resided overseas for more than five years and are returning home to reside are entitled to a number of benefits, among which are import duty waivers for vehicles, and tax exemptions for household items, once the items at reference were owned for six months or more in the country where the remigrant was living.
It was alleged that the Brijnanans utilised this concession and imported two high-end luxury vehicles, which were solely used by the Lalls. An investigation was launched into the matter to ensure that procedures and policy, as well as the provisions of the law, were adhered to. The criminal charges stemmed from that investigation.

Gharbassi Brijnanan
Gharbassi Brijnanan

The auditor general told this newspaper that his office expects to wrap up its investigations by the end of February.
The findings of Sharma’s reports from the investigation are expected to be addressed in his year-end report as auditor general, which is usually submitted to the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and subsequently made public.
Additionally, GRA has assured that it will take the necessary action in accordance with the law regarding the pending matters.

 

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