Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 29, 2017 News
The British American Tobacco Company (BAT) will be hosting a Regional Conference in Guyana in conjunction with Demerara Tobacco Company and Crime Stoppers International, to address some of the issues affecting the regional tobacco trade.
The conference will be held at the Marriott Hotel, Georgetown today, and is part of the company’s ongoing efforts to work with authorities regionally, a spokesperson stated yesterday.
The representative told Kaieteur News, also, that the conference is intended to draw some of the major players from Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Suriname to fully understand the supply chain, loss of revenue to Governments and to see what can be “beefed up “ on the “porous borders,”
“Illicit trade is a major and growing problem worldwide. Be it smuggling, counterfeit or tax evasion, governments are losing billions of dollars in tax revenues,”
The spokesperson said that because of these illegal activities, legitimate businesses are being undermined and consumers are being exposed to poorly made and unregulated products.
The illicit trade, it was noted, is being fuelled by consumers looking to save money by evading taxes on tobacco products.
Some suppliers the representative noted, are also fuelling the illicit trade as they seek to capitalise on easy border entry, high profit margins and the “weak repercussions” if caught.
The conference comes at a time when the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) would have announced plans to start stamping liquor and cigarettes coming into Guyana.
This will be done in a bid to reduce a multibillion-dollar smuggling trade in alcohol and cigarettes.
The measure is expected to take effect from as early as August or September, Commissioner-General of the GRA, Godfrey Statia, had disclosed during a recent interview with this publication.
In essence, GRA’s inspectors will be able to determine, during checks, whether any cigarettes and liquor are legal – meaning that the relevant taxes have been paid up. The stamp has to be affixed on the items.
According to Statia, the digital excise tax system is to strictly address the smuggling of these commodities.
Already, the necessary agreements with the contractor who will be providing the stamps, have been signed and the verification devices will soon be available, Kaieteur News was informed.
GRA has already made arrangements to engage the relevant stakeholders including manufacturers and importers.
The issue of the stamp was first announced last year, with Statia indicating that the GRA has been paying close attention to smuggling, which is reportedly siphoning off billions of dollars annually in revenue.
With indications of a huge smuggling racket involving these commodities, it was reported that Guyana loses an estimated $2B annually in taxes, the Commissioner-General had disclosed.
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