THE standoff between Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) officers and Mr. Navin Sankar, a high ranking employee with the GRA, continued from Friday evening, well after the midday hour yesterday, before a resolution was reached.
Mr. Sankar has handed over both vehicles, PRR 8398 and PRR 8399, which were implicated in an alleged duty-free concession scam, involving the publisher of the Kaieteur News, Mr. Glen Lall. The vehicles are currently

impounded at the GRA’s warehouse.
The address listed on the registration forms for both of the vehicles is Lot 8 Continental Park, East Bank Demerara, which is Mr. Sankar’s residence, whose parents are the owners of the vehicles. However, PRR 8398 is usually parked in front of the Kaieteur News head office on Saffon Street, Charlestown, Georgetown, and PRR 8399 is often seen on Regent Street, Georgetown near Bhena’s Footwear.
In an invited comment, Mr. Sankar maintained that no laws were broken and explained that while the vehicles are owned by his parents, their use by Mr. and Mrs. Lall does not constitute a breach of law.
He stated that the decision to hand the vehicles over was made, as he considered it the best option at hand.
“My parents are remigrants, who were entitled to the duty free concession. They do live in Guyana in Berbice and sometimes they stay with me. The vehicles were found at the address listed on the registration forms…there was no law broken,” he said.
The Guyana Chronicle spoke to Mr. Sankar’s parents, who were at Lot 8 Continental Park, yesterday.
The couple pointed out that despite being United States citizens, the change of Government, to the current Administration, inspired their decision to return as remigrants and retire in Guyana.
Additionally, Mr. Sankar highlighted that he presented the documentation for the vehicles to the GRA officers who turned up at his residence and after the integrity of the documentation was challenged; the decision to hand over the vehicles was made.
“I find it strange that GRA would say that taxes owed, but considering the circumstances, the best thing to do was to hand the vehicles over,” he said.
Mr. Sankar added his initial response, which resulted in a standoff, was based on his understanding of Section 36, Chapter 82:01, of the Customs Act.
“At the end of the day, knowing my rights, GRA is the authority in this regard, and as an employee I acted in the best interest of safeguarding my integrity,” he said.
INVESTIGATION
Meanwhile, the Commissioner-General of the GRA, Mr. Khurshid Sattaur, said now that the vehicles have been impounded the Authority will be examining the relevant documentation to ensure that procedures and policy, as well as the provisions of the law were followed.
“If there was a breach we have to investigate where that breach occurred,” he said, “I have the responsibility to find out if something is amiss and who was responsible.”
Asked about the timing of the investigation, Sattaur stated that the process is not expected to be lengthy.
“It is a question of going through the documents, shouldn’t take very long,” the GRA Commissioner-General said.
The seizure of the vehicles followed the disclosure of details of an alleged duty-free concession scam, which were made public after a look by the Guyana Chronicle at the Government of Guyana’s review of the Remigrant Scheme.
The Guyana Chronicle was able to obtain copies of all the relevant documents — from the application to and approval by the Foreign Affairs Ministry, GRA, and shipping information.
Information received indicates that this issue started with husband and wife Narootandeo and Gharbassi Brijnanan, who were, on July 3, 2013 granted permission by the Foreign Affairs Ministry to return to Guyana as “remigrants”, along with the concomitant incentives of the scheme.
Under the remigrant programme, Guyanese who would have resided overseas for more than five years and are returning home to reside are entitled to a number of benefits. These benefits include an import duty-free waiver for vehicles, and tax exemption for household items, once the items at reference were owned for six months or more in the country where the remigrant was living.
As husband and wife, Narootandeo and Gharbassi Brijnanan were entitled to concessions as two separate individuals, although a joint application was submitted.
The duty-free concession is awarded on condition that “the motor vehicle cannot be leased or transferred within three years of registration, and providing that the registration licence, fitness and registration and insurance are submitted for inspection at the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) every six months,” according to a letter issued to the applicant.
The Brijananans, on their application form, indicated that besides household items, they were returning with two 2013 Lexus Suburban L57 vehicles, the chassis numbers of which were listed along with other required information.
On the application form, the chassis numbers for the vehicles were listed as JTJHY7AX7D4100270 and JTJHY7AX6D4094851 with the registration dates in the State of New York being September 25, 2012 and March 3, 2013 correspondingly.
However, on the Bill of Lading for the vehicles, the chassis numbers were listed as JTJHY7AX6D4096745 and JTJHY7AX6D4094851, respectively. This clearly indicates that one of the numbers did not correspond with the chassis number on the application.
Further, for the vehicle bearing chassis number JTJHY7AX6D4094851, it was noticed that the date on the New York-issued Certificate of Title was March 3, 2013. This could only mean that the vehicle was not owned for more than six months before the application was made by the Brijnanans.
If true, this would be a clear violation of the regulation surrounding the application for remigrant status and duty-free concession. In essence, what would have occurred, according to documents perused by the Guyana Chronicle, is that the Brijnanans successfully obtained import duty concession in the sum of $4.222, 223.55 for each vehicle, totalling in excess of $8M.
Meanwhile, this newspaper’s research into the source price for a Lexus L570 is about US$80,000. Import duty for such a vehicle would be a total of US$94,500, bringing the total value of the vehicle to US$174,500, or more than G$36M for each of the vehicles imported by the Brijnanans.
It appears, therefore, that the Government was cheated out of a total of US$189,000 (US$94,500 times 2), or almost $40M in import duty for the two vehicles.