Police probe second duty free vehicle imported by axed GuySuCo boss

Sep 04, 2015 News

No records exist to justify this privileged exemption

By Kiana Wilburg

Jaguar car

It appears that former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), Dr. Rajendra Singh, enjoyed certain privileges and pardons under the previous administration which some experts say, fly in the face of the law.

Documents have once again surfaced to reveal that Dr. Singh was allowed to import a 2003 model Jaguar XJ8, with engine capacity of 4000 litre without paying the appropriate tax.

The duty to be paid on this vehicle should be $8,988,503. Instead, Dr. Singh was only required to pay $100.

One query is whether the exemption could have been had by the former GuySuCo CEO as a result of his remigrant status.

But after several checks, Kaieteur News found that the axed CEO has two vehicles, one of them a Mercedes Benz he had already brought in courtesy of his remigrant status. Under this scheme, a remigrant is only allowed to bring in one vehicle of his choice, duty free.

The logical conclusion is that any other vehicle being imported by Dr. Singh, such as the Jaguar, would require him to pay the stipulated duty.

Kaieteur News understands that a request has been made for an investigation to be launched to determine how Dr. Singh was granted such a privilege.

Extremely reliable sources have informed this newspaper that there is a provision within Dr. Singh’s contract with GuySuCo, which allows him to be exempt from duties on other vehicles. But this came with a condition.

Should Dr. Singh require such an exemption on any other vehicle, then he would have to request that the GuySuCo board, make a written request for such. But after checks were made, no records could be found that this was done at GuySuCo or at the legal department of the Guyana Revenue Authority.

This raises questions about who really authorized this seemingly above board exemption. The matter is still being probed by the relevant authorities.