THE Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) is aggressively working along with stakeholders to ensure that security features are placed on licence plates in a bid to deter the increasing number of false number plates used here.

Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, Commissioner-General Godfrey Statia told reporters that with what can be described as a rapid increase in the number of vehicles registered with the entity, there is need for closer investigation. GRA has a database of close to 280,000 vehicles for a population of over 700,000.

“We have one of the highest ratio of vehicles to people in the world, so you would recognise in some point in time you would reach a plateau, but by looking for the reasons we found that there were thousands of vehicles being imported from Suriname and Brazil and was not going back and were using old registration numbers.”

There are about 60 per cent of the vehicles registered last year as opposed to 2016 and according to Statia, there are reasons for this increase. Statia disclosed that there are about 2000 vehicles in Guyana that originated from Suriname that are yet to return to that country. Aside from Suriname, Statia said a number of Brazilian vehicles are also here.
As it stands, GRA has been trying to ascertain why the registration for motor vehicles has reached a plateau. He said too that the use of fake vehicle numbers and fake Diplomatic Corps numbers are also on the increase.

In fact, the GRA is working with the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to counter the illegal action. The Commissioner-General explained that efforts are being made to source a contractor to assist in this regard. “I am of the firm opinion that it should be done by the person as it is done in the US and other countries… to actually do our own vehicle number plating as is done overseas.”

Statia said this would aid in the minimizing of the fraud in relation to false number plates. “The other morning I see a DPL 5 101; nowhere in the US Embassy has 101 vehicles. Three weeks ago we found a false one in front of the Chinese Embassy with a Chinese number plate. So we need to understand the society in which we live and the lengths that people go just to defeat the tax,” he said while stressing that it is easier to break the law than to abide by it.

Back in 2015, government had announced plans to have specially manufactured number plates be introduced here. The number plates were to be of different colours and would therefore prevent vehicle owners from buying a road service licence. Government had said while it intends to move in the direction of enhancing security features on the number plates, it will consult with the many persons who make number plates for a living, so that they too could be involved in the process.

However, Statia told reporters that efforts are on the way to ensure that the number plates with security features become a reality. “We are going to get that done this year,” he said, noting that discussions are ongoing on the matter.
“It was put on the back burner because we were trying to decide whether it should fall under the Ministry of Public Security or under GRA. I told them I don’t care who does it, once it is done.”

No decision has been made on who will take responsibility for the enhanced security feature and Statia noted that he reached out to Police Commissioner, Seelall Persaud Thursday on the matter.
“We need to restart it and get it going…we need to work together with the other agencies, especially the police where the vehicles are concerned.”

In 2015, government had granted approval for a proposal to establish a central system for the issuance of vehicle licence plates as there have been growing concerns by the security apparatus about the ways in which those number plates are made.

That aside, government had taken a decision to have its vehicles marked with special number plates. Those plates bear CRG (Cooperative Republic of Guyana) thereby making government vehicles easily recognizable.