A large number of persons and entities have become illegally involved in the international telephone call business and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) is moving to prosecute them.
In a press release, the GRA said investigations conducted by various divisions of the body have revealed that within recent times, a large number of individuals and entities have become involved in such operations and the effects of these operations are noted in the significant reduction in revenue collected from legitimate providers of international service.
“These individuals and businesses have essentially created illegal telecommunications networks that employ authorized VSAT equipment for unlawful purposes or VSAT equipment without the requisite licenses, SIM banks, broadband, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and international Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) providers like Vonage, Skype, and Packet 8 to offer outbound and inbound voice calls to the public for a fee. These operations are illegitimate and essentially result in tax evasion since no revenue is paid on these calls,” the GRA declared.
The release said that such operations are increasing rapidly and the GRA’s calculations indicate that their collective impact on the national revenue collection effort is too significant to ignore. The GRA warned that all telephone calls from or received in Guyana, which do not utilise a properly licensed carrier, undermine the revenue collection by avoiding the payment of Value Added Tax (VAT) which all telephone calls attract and/or reducing the taxable income of legitimate telephone operators and therefore the amount of corporation tax collected by GRA.
The tax entity said that it intends to intensify its surveillance and investigative activities in collaboration with the competent relevant sector agencies to identify and prosecute defaulters to the full extent of the law. The release encouraged the public to report the existence of this type of operations to the GRA.
lick dem up..bruck dem up..dem must pay tax like every one else……good work…keep de pressure on and dont let up…….
Yes Evil bai, how u doin? You dam rite!! revenue must be paid..
Again and again…nothing positive.
Now read my response to gtprincess and learn.
No evileyes in dat !
Hackett
I just finished school when i left Guyana and buddy let me tell you this…I had to go for tax clerance b4 leaving.I told de man at the tax office Im just out of school..He pull out another big book and told me I owed 18 thousand dollars in taxes…hahahahahahaha this was 1976…….u hear me…out of school and it was 1976…….somebody give he a bottle of rum and i got my clearance….never worked a day in my life in good ole Guyana…
decanadianCarlVeecock if im getting to ya den dont read
Arnold…thanks…you and me can see eye to eye on many things here…..keep it up and dont let the dictators and detractors get to ya….
the monopoly held by the partly govt run telecommmunications company in guyana is charging guyanese way too much for overseas calls to the us and canada, guyana has the highest per rate overseas calls in the region and maybe the world all the reason for the paralel overseas calls institution, one can easyly run into these cafe’s make a call to their relatives for a very reasonably sum and still has some change left over, the govt is simply jealous of these people making a dollar, hence sattaur’s attitude. My suggestion is reduce the high rate gt&t charges guyanese, and maybe you would’nt have all these cafes or introduce international calling cards to guyanese at a reasonable accepted rate.
There is a small electronic device on the market that every home can afford. You hook it into the computer and free call is yours. I have to find out more about it. My cousin has one in Guyana. I have never seen it, but she said that her husband who works a lot overseas sent her it. She did mention to me that she does not want everybody to know about it because everybody will get it and then the authorities will find ways to stop it from coming or ways to disable it. She is on the phone 24×7 – long distance too.
RL
THE LITTLE GADGET IS CALLED A MAGIC JACK magicjack.com IT COST $40 AND THE PERSON IN GUYANA HAS TO HAVE A HIGH SPEED OR BROADBAND INTERNET SERVICE.
I’ve seen that kind of device advertised in one of those late-night ‘infomercials’. It’s called the “Miracle Jack” and it appears to be some kind of a USB device that links your telephone service to the internet. There is a monthly fee of US$19.95. Anyone with a computer can look it up online.
The right thing to do is to tax the subscriber for the internet access service and ensure the service providers’ revenue is being taxed. Attempting to tax the subscriber on a per call basis is shortsighted and impractical, since they pay for internet service and all applications allowing for voice communications, falls under that service. It’s like trying to tax emails because the GPO losing money!
Now the Internet Cafes are different since they’re not using these voice applications for private consumption, but as a revenue earning medium. Therefore, taxes should be levied on the income earned from services rendered. Either way- it’s complicated and I’m not sure the GRA has what it takes to implement a comprehensive system. We’ll see….
Welcome to SOCIALISM!!!…..in Guyana under the lovely PPP Govt. I want the GRA to provide an example of another Caricom country that is implementing what the GRA wants to do!!! What a shame that the PPP Govt CANNOT FOSTER PRIVATE BUSINESS. To all guyanese..remember these cases and VOTE on the issues NOT RACE in 2011…Peace
guyana is surviving by taxing the poor man to death. why does a poor country like guyana have vat. Ever since its implementation things have gottn harder for the poor man , even the legit. businesses in Guyana are suffering.
I do not believe GRA is targeting internet cafes. There are other companies set up with unbecoming names that are seriously heavy into this illegal practice.
They provide services round the clock with shift operations.
Absolutely no taxes are collected by the GRA.
Legitimate overseas service is seriously downgraded by these businesses.
Indeed the taxes collected form legitimate businesses are reduced because their profits are reduced.
GT&T is ripping us off all the time. They have been routing our call through various countries just to slap us with fees that are outlawed in the US.
RL
AND SOME OF THOSE COMPANIES ARE SUBSIDIARIES.
That matter was aired a while ago when they were defending the heavy charges,
because at that time they were owned by an overseas group.
I am not sure if they are now owned by the Guuyana Governement.
If possible…talk to me on this post of yours….
“It is easy for people to use Window Media Encoder; a web cam and a head set with mike to make free calls. It is somewhat like live streaming from 2 IP being embedded on 1 html page. This is the angle from which I learn it – more like video conferencing.”
Use SN at the start of your subject line to avoid being bounced
I am at
juncanve@pathcom.com
internet cafe is a small man business, putting pressure on internet cafe is like taking someone daily bread, internet cafes is not a 10 million dollar business,
does the GRA investigate the big fish that drive 10 million dollar vehicles and defraud the goverment tax ?
its the internet service PROVIDER that make the big dollars
most people send a computer for their relative in guyana, so they can make a living,so the won’t have to depend on the us$,
what i suggest is, make sure cafes or call centers are registered and pay a yearly fee
my regards
ALI
Another case of the govt failing to see the forest for the trees.
OVERSEAS GUYANESE CONTRIBUTE 50% OR MORE OF GUYANA’S GDP.
When will the damn govt get this point. At this time of looming recession in the developed world where half of Guyana’s GDP happens to come from, the govt is clamping down on struggling Guyanese trying to maintain contact with the very source of their livelihood. Instead of finding ways of increasing the lines of communication, they are concerned about removing them.
With remittances likely to decrease due to the the global economic crisis affecting the sources of remittances, you would think that the govt would be focused on stimulating communication to ensure the flow of remittances remain constant because when remittances evaporate crime will increase in Guyana. Getting peanuts from clamping down on these illegal overseas phone calls cannot compensate for the loss of remittances and the rise in crime. For the sake of Guyana let’s hope this recession is short.
hey everbody gotta live….so GRA need to chill…..there is bigger issues ot there