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FM
Former Member

Regent St businessmen share public servants’ outrage

Kaieteur News Publisher Glenn Lall

Kaieteur News Publisher Glenn Lall

Guyana Stores tax bailout….

 

… demand back-taxes relief like Glenn Lall’s

 

 

BY MICHAEL YOUNGE

 

Several businessmen who own small- and medium-scale stores along the Regent Street, Georgetown business district are demanding that the Government level the playing field and provide adequate or similar assistance to them in line with what was offered to the privately owned Guyana Stores Limited which benefited from a massive multimillion-dollar tax relief concession during the past week.

The businessmen made the demands after Guyana Times broke the news that the National Industrial Commercial and Investments Limited, (NICIL) a State-owned company, paid over $40 million in back taxes owed to the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown on behalf of the Guyana Stores Limited which is privately owned by Businessman Tony Yassin and embattled Kaieteur News owner Glenn Lall.

The payments were made in secret to the City Council and were lumped together with other payments owed by the Government for several of NICIL’s properties in the city. Some $200 million was handed into the City Council’s coffers, with $40 million directed to cover the debt owed by the Guyana Stores Limited.

When contacted on Tuesday, however, Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green denied that monies were paid by Government on behalf of Guyana Stores Limited but confirmed that the interest owed by the company was written off.

She could not give accurate figures as to how much money the cash-strapped Council had foregone, but this had to be in the mega millions, since the Guyana Stores property is one of the most significant in the city.

It is not clear whether the same discretion was exercised when the Government paid monies on behalf of Guyana Stores Limited.

It was also not immediately clear why the Government would direct NICIL to make the multimillion-dollar payment to the City Council on behalf of the private company, which it currently has several court actions against for hundreds of millions of dollars.

Glenn Lall and Tony Yassin, now Directors of Guyana Stores, owe US$2 million of the US$6 million the property was sold for back in 2000 by the Government via NICIL. Past due interest on the outstanding balance would amount almost to another US$2 million. The matter is sub judice as the Government owned corporation moves to the courts to recover its monies. In the meantime, the profits of the company are collected and pocketed by the two owners.

The present Government had criticised the past People’s Progressive Party Administration of using NICIL as a “slush fund” and it appears that this is what the new Finance Ministry – under which NICIL falls – has now utilised the monies deposited in the putatively autonomous body for.

 

Businessmen shocked

As the news spread in the business community, several businessmen contacted Guyana Times on Monday and expressed their shock over the move by Government, while decrying the unfairness of the decision to pay the back taxes and other debt owed by the private company.

“I want to know if the new Government would be so kind and considerate to pay my back taxes and to assist me in settling my account as I am similarly not in a position to do so, given the financials of my business. If they can do it for Guyana Stores Limited and Glenn Lall, I am sure they can do it for the more decent, law abiding and honest businessmen,” the owner of a fabric store related.

Speaking under anonymity, another businessman said that the move to pay the back taxes of Guyana Stores was suspicious and discriminatory as the Government did not offer other small and emerging businesses the same facility.

“I want help too. What is special about Glenn Lall and Tony Yassin. These men run (sic) that business into the floor after squeezing its profits dry and now this new Government bail them out. I want the Government come and do the same for me. I vote for them,” another irate businessman of a popular shoe enterprise related.

Others said the fact that Government could engage in such a barefaced act at a time when the economy was bad was both shocking and strange.

“As soon as I read the article, I know is truth. Them men close and I know they use to help out Glenn Lall with a lot of things long before they get into power. Now they got to reward he because of all he did fuh them on the campaign trail. Well I vote for them and I demanding the same treatment and help”, a downtown grocer related.

Others called for the payment of millions of dollars in taxpayers monies on behalf of a private company to be thoroughly investigated and action taken against all those who are involved.

“Things hard and is not now… before the election… and it got worst after… I have noticed a trend where the [A Partnership for National Unity] APNU and [Alliance For Change] AFC always defending Lall and Yassin and it look like the two manage to get the Government to help them again with the Guyana Stores back taxes… I don’t see nothing wrong if you helping businesses, once ya helping everybody because I willing to accept”, the owner of an electronics store reported.

The Government’s relationship with Glenn Lall apparently started way before its ascent to office. The two ruling parties while in Opposition had defended Lall when he was embroiled in several scandals.

Top figures in the parties had represented Lall when he was at the centre of the tax evasion scandal involving the importation of two Luxury SUVs which saw the public coffers loosing over $100 million in taxes.

Lall also received representation and assistance from top officials in the parties when action was taken against him two years ago by the Town Clerk for defaulting on the payments of millions of dollars in property taxes for the operations of two businesses he owns in the city.

At this point of time, when the Government has paid off the $40 million of taxes owed by Guyana Stores – a private company – it has been enmeshed in a bitter controversy where public servants, Police, nurses and teachers have complained bitterly that while the Government claims they have no money to give them their promised salary increases, they were able to find money to give themselves 50 per cent pay increases.

Government had also vowed to return the millions in NICIL’s accounts to the Consolidated Fund, from where they could have been used to pay the increase salaries for Government servants. With NICIL’s funds depleted through the paying off of debts of private companies, such as Guyana Stores, these increases look increasingly uncertain in the future.

Analysts have questioned the reason why the Government would open itself to further criticisms of ignoring its support base by favours, bestowing such huge benefits to the controversial Glenn Lall.

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Originally Posted by yuji22:

Regent St businessmen share public servants’ outrage

Kaieteur News Publisher Glenn Lall

Kaieteur News Publisher Glenn Lall

Guyana Stores tax bailout….

 .

Glenn Lall and Tony Yassin, now Directors of Guyana Stores,

Hmmm.  Tony Yassin a PNC supporter!  This is a hard core PPP man.

 

So much for the ethnic cleansing screams.

FM
Originally Posted by caribny:

Hmmm.  Tony Yassin a PNC supporter!  This is a hard core PPP man.

 

So much for the ethnic cleansing screams.

The ethnic cleansing screams come from an ignorant bunch, not fit to breathe the same air as decent minded people. MATTER OF FACT, NOT FIT FOR BREATHING PERIOD.

cain
Originally Posted by Nehru:

Some things are very hard for the less educated to understand.


OK now I know why you are so ignorant.  I thought it was because you were perpetually drunk.  Now I know that it is because you became a drunk at age 6, so never went to school.

FM
Last edited by Former Member
Originally Posted by caribny:
Originally Posted by Nehru:

Some things are very hard for the less educated to understand.


OK now I know why you are so ignorant.  I thought it was because you were perpetually drunk.  Now I know that it is because you became a drunk at age 6, so never went to school.

YOu so damn DUMB I did NOT expect you to know I described you to the teeth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nehru

Tony Yassin is about to learn a lesson from the PPP supporters that patronize his stores - Spice World and Guyana Stores.   This is the ultimate betrayal.   He built his wealth on the backs of the PPP.  What goes around comes around.  And word is spreading fast.

Bibi Haniffa
Originally Posted by yuji22:

AFC/PNC scums at work, this is unacceptable.

 

Welcome to change, PNC style.

It is procedurally unacceptable. The state owes Lall, they government paid his bill it seems because he was held in default by the State for taxes.

 

Lall should pay his taxes and the state should pay its debts. These are different issues and to break with process leads to transgressions elsewhere.

FM

How can someone like Tony Yassin who runs a two bit west indian store in Richmond Hill afford to buy Guyana Stores? Is that how distressed Guyana Stores was in 2000? Or did he benefit from the PPP gravy train back then? Strange combo given that he was a Jagdeo supporter while Lall has been on the opposite spectrum.

FM
Originally Posted by ksazma:

How can someone like Tony Yassin who runs a two bit west indian store in Richmond Hill afford to buy Guyana Stores? Is that how distressed Guyana Stores was in 2000? Or did he benefit from the PPP gravy train back then? Strange combo given that he was a Jagdeo supporter while Lall has been on the opposite spectrum.

Because it is not two bit. He was making millions from those holes in the wall. My sister started out with no less even in a different arena but she has three and they gross between 5 to 6 million annually.  Yassin had more volume since he had a niche market so was possibly making more in volume sales.

FM
Originally Posted by ksazma:

How can someone like Tony Yassin who runs a two bit west indian store in Richmond Hill afford to buy Guyana Stores? Is that how distressed Guyana Stores was in 2000? Or did he benefit from the PPP gravy train back then? Strange combo given that he was a Jagdeo supporter while Lall has been on the opposite spectrum.

Another deal made by NICIL..where every thing is private,

the public only knows when the buyer pay down and owe

the remainder.

Django
Last edited by Django
Originally Posted by Django:
Originally Posted by ksazma:

How can someone like Tony Yassin who runs a two bit west indian store in Richmond Hill afford to buy Guyana Stores? Is that how distressed Guyana Stores was in 2000? Or did he benefit from the PPP gravy train back then? Strange combo given that he was a Jagdeo supporter while Lall has been on the opposite spectrum.

Another deal made by NICIL..where every thing is private,

the public only knows when the buyer pay down and owe

the remainder.

It was a give away just like with the mainstay properties or bobby's and Amhad's. PPP crookedness as usual.

FM
Originally Posted by Stormborn:
Originally Posted by ksazma:

How can someone like Tony Yassin who runs a two bit west indian store in Richmond Hill afford to buy Guyana Stores? Is that how distressed Guyana Stores was in 2000? Or did he benefit from the PPP gravy train back then? Strange combo given that he was a Jagdeo supporter while Lall has been on the opposite spectrum.

Because it is not two bit. He was making millions from those holes in the wall. My sister started out with no less even in a different arena but she has three and they gross between 5 to 6 million annually.  Yassin had more volume since he had a niche market so was possibly making more in volume sales.

Storm..what the average percentage profit per year ???

Django

Ksazma - Storm is correct.  He owns several stores in NY on Liberty Avenue, Hillside Avenue,  Castle Hill in the Bronx.  He employs illegal Guyanese immigrants and pays them peanuts.  He also owns several apartment buildings in New York.  Not sure if he still does but he use to have the monopoly on importing fish from Guyana.  The other West Indian stores used to buy fish from him to sell back in their store.  He is a shrewd businessman and now a real scumbag.  He can afford to pay his own taxes.  Shame on him for putting that burden on the Guyanese taxpayers.

Bibi Haniffa
Originally Posted by ksazma:

 Or did he benefit from the PPP gravy train back then?

You got the answer to that.

 

Lall might have entered the deal afterwards, as Yassin seemed to have had some problems in fully financing the purchase of Guyana Stores.

 

Or maybe he just didn't see why he should pay the full price  I do remember there was a bit of a squabble though.

FM
Last edited by Former Member
Originally Posted by Nehru:

I am certainlt dealing with Dunces and Jackasses.  If the PPP gave them a SWEET DEal, why is the PNC and House Slaves giving them a 40 Million discount NOW???????????

Valid question.

FM

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