COMMISSIONER-General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Godfrey Statia , said Thursday that the environmental levy is “doing extremely well.”
He told the media that companies have been compliant with the regulations guiding the legislation, and that the authority has been able to collect the taxes.
He noted that some companies — such as Ansa McAL– have even been electing to re-export the bottles for some of their products, while others have opted to recycle.
Both of these measures, he said, reflect the government’s reason for implementing the environmental levy, in that it is in keeping with the broad agenda of fostering a ‘green’ economy and protecting the environment. “We must give them [the companies] credit,” Statia said.
An environmental levy of $10 is applied to all non-returnable bottles of alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages or water, from February 1, 2017.
This levy is in accordance with amendments to Section 7A(1) of the Customs Act Ch. 82:01, and is applicable to imported non-returnable units, or those manufactured or produced in Guyana.
According to the Act: “Notwithstanding anything in this Act or in any other written law, there shall be raised, levied and collected a levy in this section referred to as an environmental levy, at a rate of 10 dollars on every non-returnable unit of metal, plastic or glass container of any alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage or water, whether imported, locally manufactured or produced locally.”
The levy also applies to the aforementioned products, whether they are imported and not warehoused, or imported and removed from a warehouse, factory, bond or other place of storage.
Exports, however, are exempt from such levies.