-GEA, GRA has up to March 29 to pay up

CHIEF Justice (ag) Roxane George on Monday ordered the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) to pay $12.8M to Atlantic Fuels Inc (AFI) for storage costs associated with the fuel they had unlawfully detained last year.

AFI is owned by former Chairman of Guyana Water Inc, Dr Richard Van West Charles. Charles, who is the company’s managing-director, had sued Commissioner-General of the GRA, Godfrey Statia, the GRA, and the Chief Executive officer of the GEA, Mahender Sharma over the seizure. The two agencies had seized and detained 631,184.9 litres of diesel fuel worth over $80M in resale value which was imported by AFI on November 1, 2020. The legal proceedings commenced on December 22, 2020.

On Monday, the CJ ruled that both government agencies are liable for the storage costs of the fuel. The sum of $12,825,000 is to be paid in full on or before March 29, 2021.
The CJ further ordered that for every additional day that the fuel is held, the sum of $113,500 is to be paid. The government agencies have also been ordered to pay the costs of the suit filed by AFI.

AFI was represented by prominent Attorney-at-law Siand Dhurjon.
In February, the CJ had granted an order directing the GRA and GEA to release and hand over the seized fuel to AFI.

The chief justice agreed with the arguments made on behalf of AFI and declared that the fuel was the company’s property and that Statia and Sharma had acted illegally and unconstitutionally to prevent the marking and clearance of the fuel, so that AFI could successfully import it.

She ordered the two officials to stop violating the constitution and issued two orders of mandamus directing the GEA to mark the fuel and the GRA to subsequently release same, since over $20M in taxes and fees were already paid to facilitate those activities. The chief justice held that because such taxes and fees were already paid, “it was difficult to see how revenue owed to the state could be lost.”

She also agreed with the submission made by AFI’s attorney that the GEA and GRA had no power under the law to hinder or impede importation of the fuel. She went on to rule that all of the legal justifications and authorities relied upon by Statia and Sharma “were distinguishable” because they did not apply to the circumstances before the court.

Subsequent to the seizure of the fuel, GRA had filed a criminal charge against AFI at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court for making a false declaration. That case is still ongoing.