BUSINESSMAN Mohamed Shaw Jahan has filed a lawsuit against the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) over the classification of a 2020 Toyota Land Cruiser. The businessman is contending that he is being wrongfully taxed nearly $14 million in duties.
Jahan, who is a cattle rancher, was unable to uplift the vehicle since it arrived in Guyana on December 20, 2020, due to it attracting a hefty sum in duties and taxes by the GRA because of their incorrect classification. The vehicle is currently being kept at the John Fernandes terminal and facilities, incurring storage costs for over three months now. On October 30, 2020, Jahan bought the Land Cruiser from England, United Kingdom, where it was classified as a ‘light goods vehicle’. However, the GRA now insists that the vehicle is a passenger vehicle. With the aid of prominent attorney-at-law, Siand Dhurjon, Jahan has filed the lawsuit against GRA, and its Commissioner-General, Godfrey Statia, arguing that the vehicle ought to be categorised and registered as a goods vehicle which should attract $1.8M in taxes and duties to the government.

According to Dhurjon, because the Land Cruiser is a special model which only has two seats, two doors, two ventilating windows, a flatbed cargo area to the rear and a barrier between the cargo area and the driver area, it is ‘exclusively qualified to be a goods vehicle’.
Dhurjon stated that any classification of the vehicle as a passenger vehicle would be an erroneous misclassification and a misapprehension of the Common External Tariff found in Schedule 1 of the Customs Act, the Harmonised System Classification Codes, and the World Customs Organisation’s Explanatory Notes on the issue.
The matter is fixed for hearing before the Honourable Madam Justice Damon Yonge at the Demerara High Court on April 22.

The Commissioner-General of the GRA will have to justify their classification of the Land Cruiser as a passenger vehicle and why the vehicle ought not be classified as a goods vehicle.
Jahan, in his affidavit in the lawsuit filed, said that when a vehicle is permitted to be registered as a goods vehicle, it is granted a very favourable tax treatment; in this case, if the vehicle is classified as a goods vehicle, Jahan should only have to pay $1,871,457 in total duties and taxes to clear the vehicle.
However, if classified as a normal passenger vehicle, Jahan would have to pay about $13,890,384 in total.
He further explained that he sought to meet Mr Statia over the wrong classification of the enclosed 2,800cc diesel van as a ‘vehicle principally designed for the transport of persons’.

NOT PERMITTED
But this meeting was not permitted; instead, he was referred to another officer of the GRA who maintained the erroneous position that the vehicle is a passenger vehicle. A ‘Classification Committee’ of the GRA later sustained such a ruling in a vague letter sent to Jahan. Jahan’s lawsuit explained to the court that the GRA “has no written policy, guidelines or information available from their office on what features/criteria they would accept or deny to classify a vehicle as a goods vehicle.
In the application, Jahan is seeking an order of declaration that the vehicle is ‘a motor vehicle’ used for the transport of goods. He is also asking the court for a declaration that the classification by the GRA that the vehicle is a “passenger vehicle” is arbitrary, ultra vires, unreasonable, irrational, unfair, an abuse of power, unconstitutional, whimsical and capricious against the Revenue Authority’s own policy and without any legal foundation or authority, The applicant is also seeking an order to quash the classification of the vehicle as a passenger vehicle, along with another order of prohibition to forbid any computation of taxes under the drastically higher taxation scheme applicable to a passenger vehicle. Additionally, he is also seeking an order of certiorari to compel the Commissioner-General to take all steps necessary to accept the sum of $1,871,457 in total duties and taxes already paid and to clear and release the vehicle to Jahan forthwith,
Also, Jahan is asking the court to grant an order that the Commissioner-General compensate him for the storage costs owed by him to John Fernandes Limited due to the GRA’s unlawful actions.