… after Opposition ‘sadly and incomprehensibly’ rejected the Bill

FACED with the threat of litigation from the Surinamese firm, Rudisa Beverages over the application of Guyanese environmental tax legislation, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic administration had approached the Tenth parliament in 2013 to remedy the situation legislatively.The Bill that was introduced sought to correct the offending provision in the Guyanese tax legislation and to remove the discriminatory application of the Guyanese tax legislation, Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Roger Luncheon recalled yesterday.

Gov’t expects Opposition this time around….to act sensibly, however belatedly – Dr. Luncheon

“Sadly, and incomprehensibly, the Opposition’s ultimate stance was to reject the Bill and indeed prevent the Government’s intention in being implemented. Sadly, today, Guyana has to face a CCJ (Caribbean Court of Justice) ruling on this matter,” Luncheon said while addressing his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing.
Speaking at the Office of the President, in Georgetown, Luncheon said a series of orders accompanied the ruling of the CCJ, a ruling that was not in Guyana’s favour.
“Now we have to deal with the tendency of the Opposition parties, both APNU and AFC, to decline to accept responsibilities for this situation. They would have us believe, ‘don’t blame us’ and even more absurdly, blame the Government.”
Luncheon said the CCJ was supportive of the Government of Guyana’s efforts to comply with its treaty obligations and this was in concert with the principles of the Surinamese firm.
“We are confronted with the ruling today but in answering this resort of the Opposition to reject responsibility for this sad situation, the acid test would soon follow.
“Government, Cabinet has agreed that this Bill would be reintroduced as we have done with other pieces of legislation, and did not find favour with this one-seat parliamentary Opposition.
“We have decided to have this piece of legislation returned to the Tenth Parliament for reconsideration and essentially for the Opposition this time around….to act sensibly, however belatedly.”
The CCJ last week ordered the Government of Guyana to repay to Rudisa Beverages US$6,047,244M (G$1.2B) for charging an environmental tax on its imports of beverages into Guyana which are distributed through CIDI Distributors Inc., the other co-claimant.

(By Telesha Ramnarine)