The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) is actively participating in the ongoing audit of the US$460 million in pre-contract costs claimed by ExxonMobil and its co-venturers and is working to have a 24-hour presence on offshore oil operations and closed-circuit television access as it yesterday promised strict tax oversight of the petroleum sector.
“There is a full gamut of activities that we are required to monitor and evaluate… just to say that we have been successful and the next [oil] lift is slated for tentatively the 3rd or 4th of February and we are in full state of readiness to attend to those duties,” Head of the GRA’s Petroleum Unit Lancelot Wills yesterday told a press conference held by the agency to bring the public up to date on its activities.
Wills along with Commissioner-General of GRA Godfrey Statia updated the media on what the agency has been doing as it pertains to the petroleum sector and said that even as they are prepared for tax oversight of the sector, they are simultaneously working with the United Kingdom firm IHK Markit to audit cost oil, which could be up to 75% of annual revenues.
