Worrying loopholes exist at GRA – Finance Minister

While the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) contributes the bulk of revenues intended for the Consolidated Fund, Finance Minister Winston Jordan has said that there are worrying loopholes which have been found.

Finance Minister, Winston Jordan

He said that the coalition government is making “serious moves” to remove the identified weaknesses. Jordan said that an analysis of the problems and challenges facing the entity shows “heavy top management of the authority, coupled with low staff morale and a lack of succession planning, both vertically and horizontally.” He added that the GRA lacked transparency and accountability since it was politically compromised under the previous administration. The Finance Minister said that policies and procedures were poorly enforced, and there was limited intelligence gathering. He said that the cost of conducting transactions was high, which often led to involuntary compliance. He said that it is, therefore, imperative that GRA’s organizational and managerial capacity is strengthened and enhanced in a sustainable manner. Jordan said that the Inter-American Development Bank has been asked to lend assistance in strengthening the entity. The Finance Minister also said that as a result of declining external inflows to Guyana, due in part to debt relief given under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative and the Multilateral  Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI), the GRA has assumed added importance over the last decade in generating resources to meet Government expenditure programmes. He expressed that this role will expand, in the medium term, as the government accelerates its programmes and projects to enable Guyanese to experience the good life. The Finance Minister said that his government will constantly review the current operational standards and bring them in line with international best practices, train a core staff to manage the Authority, and build a new ethos that emphasizes service delivery and efficient revenue collection. He said that the expectation is that when the tax reforms are fully implemented, the current capacity strengthening exercise will compensate for the decline in foreign inflows. On the topic of tax reforms, Jordan reminded that on the campaign trail, among the promises made by the coalition government was the implementation of an Action Programme for the First 100 days. The Finance Minister recalled Government’s promise to “immediately implement a phased reduction of VAT …” Jordan said that upon acceding to Office, the government found a tax system that is characterized by high tax rates. He said that this resulted in innumerable requests for tax exemptions and concessions, which totaled $55 billion, in 2014. The Finance Minister said that this is “an unacceptable level of tax evasion that is clearly unlawful, discriminatory and stifles competition.” He said, too, that that level of tax evasion represents “widespread discretionary elements, which have been used to favour and reward friends, rather than encourage development; and low and/or no compliance.” The Finance Minister said that the system is broken but it will be fixed. Jordan asserted that this will be done in a comprehensive manner – one that results in a transparent and predictable tax system that rewards effort, promotes investment, improves the national competitiveness, and removes distortions between and across sectors. Jordan said that  it is for these reasons the government delayed the phased reduction in the VAT, and has established a Tax Reform Committee to undertake a detailed assessment of the tax system. He said that this committee is headed by NICIL Chairman Dr. Maurice Odle, an economist. Dr. Odle has served in various positions at the United Nations and Caricom with distinction. At Caricom, he was the economic advisor to the CARICOM Secretary General. The Finance Minister has no doubt that the economist will do the same in his new posts.  Since major work has been completed in this area recently, Jordan said that he expects the Committee to complete its work by the end of the year.