– more online tax services to be rolled out

THE Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) will soon move to a paperless system where documents will be scanned instead of photocopied, according to GRA Deputy Commissioner General, Hema Khan.

Khan was, at the time, speaking at a GRA Press Conference hosted by Commissioner General, Godfrey Statia, at the tax agency’s Camp Street Headquarters on Friday.
“We will just collect them, scan them and give them back to you, so we will be doing the change with the configuration in the system,” Khan said.

She noted that the scanning will be done by GRA with the utilisation of documentation programmes which will facilitate storage and retrieval of digitised information with the touch of a button.

Additionally, the Deputy Commissioner General said as of December 31, 2019 GRA through the ASYCUDA project processed 55, 985 declarations.
“It is significant to note because those declarations would normally come into us and we would have had to key that in manually, as well as all the paperwork associated with that, so that has been eliminated. So now we can concentrate on more meaningful activities rather than just data entry,” Khan said.

Further, she said the average clearance time is now three days, with a minimum clearing time of up to one day.
“We had started the year (2019) with about an average of six days clearance time and as of December last we had gone down to three days. We are continuously trying to improve on that and we are using rather than a 100 per cent examination and a 100 per cent valuation checks, we are now using a risk profiling mechanism to collect declarations for processing,” the Deputy Commissioner General said.

She said items will be labeled with red, green and yellow and this will determine how long items take to process.

Ms. Khan said that in 2020, a valuation module will be added to the system along with more efficient systems for clearance of barrels at wharves.
Further, she said advance systems will result in GRA stopping its use if the Total Revenue Integrated Processing System (TRIPS) in Georgetown, but it will still be used in Mabaruma and Lethem where there is a connectivity issue.
She said many more advanced modules will be added to the system to ensure GRA performs more efficiently.

Meanwhile, Head of Information Technology (IT) at GRA, Sese Jones, said the IT department will be exploring ways in which to provide the tax-paying public with up-to-date services and remove barriers to compliance to the tax rules.
“One of the things we heard from the public and saw for ourselves is the driver’s licence. We noticed that the original document had some problems with regards to durability and security. Since then, we embarked on a project with a number of international agencies to get the equipment in the country to have stronger security and more durable driver’s

licence,” he explained.
He said this was launched at the end of 2019 which resulted in the extra $5000 fee, catering for the longer life cycle. Instead of three years, it is now five years until expiration.
He said that the department has also been looking at internal software to improve operational efficiency and a company was engaged to work with the GRA to produce a new tax administration software that will enable better tools to administer taxation in accordance with the local laws of Guyana.

“As of October this year we will begin the actual rollout… right now what we are doing is working through all the rules and ensuring that the product reflects all of our operational procedures and is consistent with the rules and laws of Guyana,” he said.
Adding that the change will have a significant impact, Jones said the GRA is mindful that there could be delays and the tentative schedule is in August, 2020.

Further, he said that the Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) has made significant progress and GRA will build on top of that system and a single window system will also be offered for customs and trade activities via a web portal integrating other agencies.

“That project is kicking off with the IDB and significant internal work has already been done. Provided that they are no further delays, we should be able to start seeing significant progress early next year,” the head of the IT department noted.