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Kaieteur News
Wednesday November 30, 2016
Revised Tax Act will empower GRA to garnish funds from taxpayers’ bank accounts The Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan during his presentation of the State’s 2017 National Budget on Monday, announced that Chapter 81:01 of the Income Tax Act will be revised to allow the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) to garnish funds from bank accounts held by taxpayers who have outstanding arrears. Garnishment is a legal process whereby payments towards a debt owed by an individual can be paid by a third party - which holds money or property that is due
to the individual - directly to the creditor. The Minister said that this revision will help strengthen the GRA’s revenue collection and improve compliance with demands issued by the Authority for outstanding payments. The Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo, weighed in on this proposed initiative immediately after the Finance Minister finished his presentation. Jagdeo said that it will ‘negatively’ impact the private sector and investor confidence. He added also
that the measure will be worrisome for ‘ordinary’ citizens. The Minister last Monday presented a $250B National Budget which has already begun to garner both praise and criticisms. The Minister also stated that there will be increased penalties for offences. The penalty imposed for offenses committed against the Income Tax Act under the provisions of Section 109 to 111 he said, will be increased from $15,000 to $100,000 to force voluntary compliance
while Non-resident companies failing to keep accounting records in Guyana thereby causing unnecessary delays during audit, will be subject to a fine of $1,000,000. Guyana over the years has seen an increase in roadside shops, taxi services, liquor restaurants amongst other small establishments. Sometime ago, it was realized that some of these businesses are often noncompliant with the GRA. This had become a struggle for the authority. However, this is about to change. Minister Jordan told the National Assembly that the law will be amended to give persons a maximum of three months from the commencement date of business to inform the GRA. He pointed out that currently, there are no fees for the issuance of TIN certificates, even though GRA incurs an administrative cost. Jordan proposed to impose a fee of $1,000 for the first TIN certificate and $5,000 for reprinting of TIN certificates. Jordan also told the House that late filing of
Income Tax, Corporation Tax and Property Tax Returns will now attract a fine. He said that the current late filing penalty regime does not provide for penalties to be imposed on late returns which disclose a loss. He said that taxpayers can submit a loss or deficit return late without fear of any penalties, since penalties are applied to taxes assessed. The Minister proposed an increase to late filing penalties to 10 percent. He indicated that a flat fee of $50,000 will be applied to each loss or deficit return submitted after the prescribed time. Jordan also addressed the late payment of tax. He said that the penalty for late payment of tax provided for under section 99 (1) of the Income Tax Act Chapter 81:01 will be repealed and a simplified interest regime enacted. Section 6 (1) (c) of the Financial Administration and Audit Act will be amended to facilitate the imposition of interest on late payment of tax at the rate of 2 percent per annum. Jordan told the House that the current penalties for failing to keep proper books
and records are lenient. He said that as a result, many taxpayers, particularly the self-employed taxpayers, fail to keep proper books and records. The Finance Minister proposed that the penalties be increased to $200,000 or five percent of the tax assessed, whichever is greater. Poor record-keeping has proven to not only be a problem in the private sector. In his 2015 audit report, Auditor General Deodat Sharma pointed to numerous cases of improper recordkeeping at many Ministries and at the various regional offices. There has also been an increase in the fine attached to failure to present books and records when requested. Jordan told the House that taxpayers often fail to present books, records and other information in a timely manner. He said that audits are greatly affected by the lack of evidence to justify disclosures in financial statements. Therefore, he proposed to increase the fine to $200,000 and/or six months imprisonment.
Health Minister calls for research into state of kidney failure ...but promotes prevention as best approach to combat disease A call for expert research to be done into Guyana’s kidney failure situation has been made by Minister of Public Health, Dr. George Norton. The Minister made this disclosure recently when asked by this publication about reports that there has been an increase in the number of deaths associated with kidney failure. He noted that he was not in a position to share details about the related deaths since proper research has not yet been conducted. It was for this very reason, he noted, that he was urging research in this area. Recently the Minister was in receipt of a report of research which compared the advantages of haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. “I would encourage more people to do research like this so that we can know the real situation about kidney disease,” said the Minister as he spoke of the need to “examine the collection of the data, the expertise with which the analyses were made, and compare it with information that exists before a policy decision is made, if we have that recommendation.”
But according to Minister Norton, currently his Ministry is embracing a prevention approach to tackle kidney failure by promoting healthy lifestyles. This is in light of the fact, the Minister said, that treatment for this health challenge is very expensive. “With an economy like we have, it (treatment) is almost impossible to sustain,” asserted Minister Norton, as he considered that there are an increasing number of people being diagnosed with diabetes, a condition that can cause kidney failure. “It is happening at an alarming rate among younger persons too, and the intensity of that is increasing...unless we become sufficiently concerned and educated about our lifestyle, only then will we be able to curtail it,” the Minister noted. There are reports that suggest that currently there are about 8,000 individuals being diagnosed with kidney failure annually. While the public health sector is able to offer treatment, this service becomes limited when dialysis is required. Patients are offered a few
Public Health Minister, Dr. George Norton free sessions at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation after which they are given a one-off financial support to access the service elsewhere. This is in light of the fact that the hospital simply hasn’t the capacity to continuously cater to all patients seeking dialysis treatment. There are at least three privately-operated facilities that offer dialysis treatment that patients can access. In the past, kidney failure patients were afforded financial support from the Ministry of Health which covered about 40 sessions of dialysis at a private institution per year. However, the high cost of offering this (Continued on page 30)