A SCHEME THAT IS BEING USED FOR
SCAMS
Someone wants to own a luxury vehicle but that person cannot afford or does not wish to pay the taxes on the luxury vehicle. However, that person has relatives overseas. So they arrange for that relative to fake that he or she is returning to Guyana to live. The relative is told to purchase a luxury vehicle in his name. The relative does this and them makes a trip to Guyana and goes into the tax agency and says that he is returning to Guyana to live and wants to return with his luxury vehicle which he has registered in his name, incidentally not long before he decides to re-migrate to Guyana. After he gets the concession, he disappears from Guyana. That is one of the ways in which the tax authorities are defrauded of hundreds of millions of dollars each year because of a scheme that was reintroduced by the PPP administration in 1992. This scheme was intended to attract skilled Guyanese back home. But the government never said what specific skills they wanted to attract and so even housewives and floor sweepers could come back and claim tens of millions in concessions from the government. They can also import luxury vehicles and enjoy tax concessions as part of the scheme which was first launched under the PNC regime. To the credit of the PNC, it abolished the scheme after it was discovered that it was being abused. The PPP should now consider doing the same in light to the reports coming out from the local tax authorities that some re-migrants are abusing the system. It is not the tax agency that is responsible for making tax policy. That is the remit of the government. And therefore it is for the government to take corrective surgery where its tax policies are susceptible to abuse. The PPP government unfortunately does not appreciate that there should be changes to certain tax policies based on whether they have achieved their objectives. The PPP likes to adopt the position that once it makes a policy, it should not reform or abolish this policy because to do so would be tantamount to failure. This is a dumb approach to policy-making because even the best intentioned of policies can at times present practical hurdles in their implementation. The last time the tax department investigated the importation of luxury vehicles by re-migrants, the public heard nothing about how many vehicles were repossessed or seized or how many persons were placed before the courts. This was despite the fact that it was said that over fifty bogus duty free letters were signed. Yet not one single person of those who falsely imported the bogus vehicles was charged. Instead, two small clerks were charged with aiding and abetting the process. But the “big shots” did not have to face the humiliation of the courts in what at the time was said to be one of the biggest scams in the country. It is time to bring an end to the abuse of the remigration scheme. The government should stop it. Those who won fancy vehicles overseas should be encouraged to sell these vehicles and purchase a vehicle locally. There is not a shortage of vehicles here and it would be a more equitable policy to ensure that this is done. The majority of those who re-migrated were not asked to surrender their foreign citizenship. They should have been asked to do this as a means of preventing an abuse of the system. Many of them stayed here for a few months but would return overseas for medical treatment and to receive their social security and pension benefits. Uncle Sam is now tightening up and it may soon be the case that in order to enjoy certain benefits, citizens will have to live in the United States. This means many of those who said they were coming back to live in Guyana, will have to decide whether they want to live in Guyana or return to Uncle Sam.