REFERENCE is made to a letter published in the January 7, 2012 edition of the Chronicle captioned, “Frustrating experience at Licence Revenue Office” by the writer George Baird and I wish to provide a response on what transpired as reported by this letter writer. On Tuesday, January 3, 2012, Mr. George Baird visited the Licence Revenue Office (LRO) to purchase his Motor Vehicle Licence. Unfortunately on this date, the new format of  motor vehicle licences were not available. However, a manual receipt was issued to Mr Baird and he was asked to return on Friday, January 6th , 2012 for his motor vehicle licence.
Upon Mr. Baird’s return to LRO on Friday, January 6, 2012, he did not bring with him his registration document. He told the cashier, at the time, that another staff member who had dealt with him previously told him not to bring his registration, only the receipt that she had issued to him. Unfortunately, this staff was not in the office at the time of Mr Baird’s visit; as such, the attending cashier explained to Mr. Baird that the  reason for requiring  his registration was because without certain information contained on the said registration document she  would not be able to process his motor vehicle licence.
Enquiries were made upon the resumption of the staff member who initially dealt with Mr. Baird and she indicated that she did not give him such advice. Subsequently, Mr Baird returned with his registration and his licence was processed at 2:45pm.
It is very unfortunate that Mr. Baird had such an encounter when renewing his motor vehicle licence and I would like to thank him nevertheless for bringing this matter to my attention. I wish to state that Mr. Baird should have brought this matter to the attention of the Senior Manager at the Licence Revenue Office when he made his second visit to the office so that he could have been provided with a proper explanation and thereby hopefully spared the frustration he experienced.
I further wish to state that in the future, taxpayers are advised that should they encounter similar or other problems while processing any transaction at Licence Revenue Office, they should first  seek to speak to the Manager or Senior Manager who will be in a position to address those issues.
The Guyana Revenue Authority  through the LRD,  has been responding to  the needs of its taxpayers and has implemented major improvements to the system for  the renewal of motor vehicle licences.
The current system is a significant improvement from what obtained in the past in that  the date of the registration of the motor vehicle is used to renew the licence.  This new system was designed to reduce the number of vehicle owners having to visit the Licence Revenue Office  during the “peak licensing period” (three months), decrease the time vehicle owners spend at the GRA Offices to renew motor vehicle licences and  increase the quality of service to the public.