…GRA rubbishes Auditor General’s Report on 2018 tax collection

Rubbishing an article published in the Guyana Times, Commissioner-General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Godfrey Statia said GRA collected $198.5B in taxes in 2018 and not $217B as reported.

“During a press conference which I held in early 2019, I provided to those present and the Guyanese diaspora, that the GRA’s total collection for the fiscal year 2018 was $198.5B. It is therefore unfathomable as to where the Guyana Times “would have seen” in the 2018 Auditor General’s Report, that the GRA collected some $217B in taxes, some 18.5 billion dollars more,” Statia said in a statement on Thursday.

In an article headlined ‘GRA collects $217B in taxes in 2018,’ Guyana Times reported that the Audit Office of Guyana (AOG), in its 2018 report, stated that GRA increased its collection of taxes by billions. Alluding to the Auditor General Deodat Sharma, the newspaper said the 2018 report revealed that $217 billion in taxes was collected and deposited in the consolidated fund.

But Statia said the article is inaccurate. According to him, the article creates a false impression that the revenue authority overtaxed the economy in 2018. “Increases in GRA’s tax collections are owed to significant improvements made over the years in tax administration and efficiency, together with increased revenues from the oil sector,” the Commissioner-General said as he justified the $198.5B in taxes received in 2018.
Statia reminded that since Budgets 2016 and 2017, no new taxes were rolled out in any of the subsequent budgets. “Conversely, the GRA, in pursuit of vertical and horizontal equity in taxation, successfully advocated for the reduction of tax rates and removal of tax base that was creating compliance burden on taxpayers. In addition, a number of items in the annual Budgets are always removed from the standard rated category to the exempt and zero rated categories. With reduced bases and reduced tax rates for both individuals and companies in the manufacturing sector leading to reductions in the effective rates of taxation, the GRA did not introduce any new tax type to compensate for any shortfalls in revenue forfeited as a result of these measures,” he explained.
He added: “Before naysayers attempt to vilify the work of the GRA and obfuscate the facts, they should not only look at the height of progress made, but also the depths which we came from. Albeit, I stand unfettered and unbothered as I continue to serve faithfully, the taxpaying public of Guyana.”

The Commissioner-General also used the platform to express his disappointment that the Auditor General’s 2018 report was leaked. Laying the blame at the feet of the Auditor General, Statia said the leak represents a breach of confidentiality; a fundamental tenet in the work of the Audit Office and is tantamount to professional negligence.