PUBLISHER of the Kaieteur New, Mohan ‘Glenn’ Lall and others are expected to reappear in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court today for a hearing on the allegations of alleged tax fraud.The filing of six charges altogether followed the disclosure of details of an alleged duty-free scam which were made public by the Guyana Chronicle after a close examination of the Government of Guyana’s review of the Remigrant Scheme.

Magistrate Judy Latchman, on November 24, 2014, adjourned the case to January 8, 2015, pending the appearance of two other persons involved in the matter, who were expected to be served with summons.
In mid-October, Lall and his wife Bhena were arraigned at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court. The couple, who reside at Nandy Park, East Bank Demerara, denied the charges that were read to them by Chief Magistrate, Priya Sewnarine-Beharry.
The other two persons, Narootandeo and Gharbassi Brijnanan, who were also charged, did not appear to answer the charges against them.
The defence was represented by high profile lawyers, some of whom are also prominent politicians. The list of lawyers includes; Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan, Senior Counsel, Rex McKay, Nigel Hughes, Christopher Ram, Joseph Harmon, Brendan Glasford, Bettina Glassford and Robin Hunte. The lawyers representing Glenn and Bhena Lall are expected to be the same group of lawyers representing the Brijnanans.

INVESTIGATION CONTINUES
Meanwhile, Auditor General, Deodat Sharma, told the Guyana Chronicle that investigations by his office into the remigrant scheme are continuing.
“We are still doing our investigation with all the remigrants…so far we have more than 20 persons under review,” he said.
According to him, the scope of work is “tedious” given the vast amount of information that needs to be reviewed. “In some cases we have to go as far back as 2010,” he said.
To date, Sharma has forwarded two reports to the Board of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), through which the Authority requested an investigation.
While he declined to comment on the findings of the reports, the Auditor General disclosed that two major issues that the reports highlighted were the falsification of documents and whether or not the persons applying for the benefits offered to remigrants, actually qualifies as remigrants.
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, among which are import duty-free waivers 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.
Relative to the duty-free concession, the Guyana Chronicle is told that this 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 GRA every six months.”
“There are a few other contentions that the report addressed, but the details of those I cannot disclose,” Sharma added.
He did, however, indicate that the findings of his reports will be addressed in his yearend report as Auditor General, which is usually submitted to the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and subsequently made public.
Asked about the move forward after all his reports have been completed and sent to GRA’s Board, Sharma explained that from here it would be for the Authority to take the requisite action.

“We should expect movement on the matter soon…very shortly we will conclude our work, hopefully by the end of the month,” the Auditor General said.