POLITICAL activist Ras Leon Saul has said in a press release that growing concern is being expressed by members of the sugar-cane planting, rice-farming and gold-mining communities especially, over the bureaucratic red-tape and “hoops of fire” which they have to go through in order to get the duty-free and VAT-free concessions afforded them by the Government for capital equipment such as combines, tractors, plows, excavators and mining equipment.The release said the intended beneficiaries of these concessions end up suffering and wasting time in the process of attempting to access those concessions.

At a time when the new APNU+AFC Government is emphasising the thrust of national development…with focus on the construction industry, rice industry and gold-mining enterprises – gold miners, rice farmers and other small construction operators of duty-free and VAT-free equipment, who live and operate in remote areas far from the capital city, are calling for a revamped system of acquiring the duty-free and VAT-free concessions.

The release said one very irate and frustrated rice farmer said, “Imagine me live till a Crabwood Creek, and to get me duty-free and VAT-free letters for me excavator and combine me have to apply to the Rice Producers’ Association (RPA), then to the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), then to the Ministry of Agriculture, then to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and then Customs…all this covers a two-month period. But at the end of the tedious and time-consuming process, the equipment is duty-free and VAT-free!

“This present system leaves a lot of loopholes for bribery and corruption,” noted the worried rice farmer. “You have to pay under the table for some officers and individuals to speed up the process to acquire the duty-free and VAT-free documents.

“With all the lining up at the various agencies, by the time you get the equipment cleared off the wharf, the planting season is over,” stated the concerned rice farmer, according to the release.

Meanwhile, some influential operators in the gold-mining industry have welcomed the new concessions granted to the mining industry, especially in the 2015 budget.

Also, at this time of celebrating Mining Week 2015, they are complimenting the new Government on moving with alacrity and focus on resolving issues that affect miners and the gold-mining industry.

But the group of miners was adamant that the Administration must implement a better system and process for the acquisition of duty-free and VAT-free documents.

“Why is there need for us to go through so much bureaucracy, when at the end of the day the documents are duty-free and VAT-free…but too much time is being wasted in obtaining them,” stated the miners.

“These aren’t luxury items like TV sets and microwaves…these are items needed for national development.

“For more efficiency, better production and productivity, while reducing frustration, travelling expenses and corruption…put a better and faster system in place,” the gold miners are requesting.

“After all, the equipment is costly and includes essential construction machinery to aid in the national development thrust. The system used to be better up to two years ago, before all the requirements from various agencies were put in place by the previous Administration. This new Administration has to change it,” they opined, according to the release.