THE Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) owes the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) between $400 to $500 million in unremitted Pay As You Earn (PAYE) income tax deductions that the municipality took out of its employees’ salaries but failed to pay over to the revenue collection agency.

This was admitted by Georgetown Mayor Ubraj Narine, who said that he is nonetheless hoping that the municipality can negotiate with GRA to hold off on a warning that it will begin legal proceedings to levy on property belonging to City Hall if the debt is not addressed.

“They have threatened us with a court action; we ask them to hold on it, and we are trying our very best,” Mayor Narine said, adding: “We are government agencies; we shouldn’t fight down each other; we should seek to work with each other. Let us negotiate and find a common ground to work together again, because we are government agencies.”

City Hall has approximately 600 employees, and pays approximately $120 million in salaries per month, Mayor Narine noted. He said that the period across which the money is owed is decades long, and predates his assumption of office.

“That’s years story; decades you talking about. It is roughly $400 to $500 million that is owed,” Mayor Narine said.

However, he admitted that the Council continues to accrue more debt, since the current deductions are also not being paid. Asked why City Hall is not remitting the money, Narine said he is awaiting the resolution of a previous discussion held with the GRA Commissioner-General Godfrey Statia that the revenue authority would hand over back to City Hall Value Added Tax (VAT) that was previously paid to the GRA by City Hall.

“We had an agreement in 2019 with Mr. Statia, where Mr. Statia said to me that all the VAT paid to GRA through the solid waste department, those monies will be remitted to us. We’re not supposed to pay VAT on garbage; we’re still to negotiate on that,” Narine said.

According to Narine, the discussions were started in 2019 but were never finalized, and the amount of VAT that was to be paid is still to be determined to this day.

“I can’t give a figure, because GRA did not supply me with that figure. We did follow up, and at one follow up, they said we have to go back in our records and find it [the figure] and give them. It’s a back and forth,” Narine said.

Narine believes if the figure is determined, and the agreement goes through, then the amount can be deducted from City Hall’s PAYE debt. Representatives from City Hall had met with representatives from the GRA earlier this year for yet another follow up on the state of the agreement. Narine said he was not present for the meeting, and was debriefed after, but a way forward is still not clear.