THE Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) has collected billions during the first half of 2017, according to Commissioner-General, Godfrey Statia during a news conference hosted on Monday by Finance Minister, Winston Jordan.

Statia told reporters that based on the statistics in the Mid-Year Report, there “is clear evidence that we are going behind taxes… We are trying to find those persons who should have been paying rightful tax.”
As he observed, “We are way ahead of collections for this year, versus last year,” and there has even been an increase of about 13 per cent.

At the moment, the Authority is heavily focused on retrieving arrears, and improving collections as well as Withholding Taxes.
Statia said he will be providing greater clarity on the successes of the Authority sometime next week, when he will host an independent press conference.
Shortly after taking office, Statia had said if he failed to achieve certain benchmarks, he will step down as the Authority’s head.

Meanwhile, it has been noted in the Mid-Year Report that the GRA has seen revenue collection increase to $97.2B at end of June, 2017, which is 13.1 per cent above the corresponding period in 2016.
Tax revenue alone is 88.3 per cent of total revenue collection. The Report also states that internal revenue collection has increased by $5B, reaching $41.6B during the first half of the year, compared to $36.5B for the same period in 2016.

“This increase was primarily attributed to a growth in corporation tax payments of $2.3B by several companies in the manufacturing and services sectors, as well as the natural resource sector,” the report states.
Withholding Tax grew by $865.5M, or 27.2 per cent, mainly due to payments by two companies providing support services to the oil and gas sector, and interest earned on savings accounts at commercial banks. Of the amount collected, almost $191.9M was arrears.

Collection of personal income tax during the first half of 2017 stood at $265.3M above the $10.6B collected in the same period of 2016. Employers’ Compliance, on the other hand, has increased by six per cent, with 1,777 employers making payments during the period January to June 2017, and the collection of nearly $1B in arrears.

The collection of Customs and Trade Taxes grew by $5.6B in the first half of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016. Value-added and Excise Taxes increased by $2.04B and $1.96B respectively, reaching $19.29B and $16.84B, respectively, during January to June, 2017.

Value-added Tax (VAT) from imports of goods grew by $1.2B, partly because of policy changes in Budget 2017. The VAT on domestic goods also increased by $838.5M, primarily because of higher payments from the telecommunication, and wholesale and retail trade sectors.

Meanwhile, revenue collection from petroleum products has increased by $3.2B to $10.9B, thereby offsetting the reduction in Excise Tax on motor vehicles during the reviewed period. Excise Tax collection on motor vehicles declined by $1.5B to $2.9B compared to $4.4B during January to June 2016.

However, revenue collection from excise taxes on domestic alcoholic beverages increased by $238.0M to $2.1B due to the Budget 2017 measure that amended excise taxes for alcohol consumption and higher sales of beverages on the local market, the Mid-Year Report noted.

Travel taxes were 23.0 per cent higher than the January to June period last year, and that growth has been attributed to a combination of $1,000 increase in airport departure tax, as well as a 6.3 per cent increase in the number of departing passengers.