Georgetown: A thorough inspection was conducted on a 1×40 ft container consigned to Frank Deabru on Friday, February 7, 2014 following the commencement of the Guyana Revenue Authority’s (GRA’s) Random Selection of Imported Goods for Examination exercise.
Members of the public including the press were invited to witness the process, whereby officials from GRA’S Goods Examination Unit conducted a one hundred percent inspection of the shipment at the Demerara Shipping Company Ltd on Water Street. The observer team included internal and external stakeholders.
On conclusion of the relatively smooth process, it was reported by the officer conducting the examination that of the 2,450 cartoons of ketchup declared, two cartoon boxes were short-shipped. However, the consignee did not wish to claim the “short shipment”.
Commenting on the process, “the Commissioner-General of the GRA Mr. Khurshid Sattaur, said that he “is in full praise of the work being done by his officers which is fully supported by member of the Private Sector as this process will significantly impact on the level of transparency that is associated with this activity.” Mr. Sattaur said that since the selection process is random, the suggestion that persons are being victimized would no longer be a valid excuse for those who wish to attribute being selected for such customs procedure as being targeted or victimized”.
He further stated that, “it is hoped that the fear of public exposure through this process of some importers who are bent on continuing with their unsavory practice of making false declarations to evade the payment of the correct taxes, will deter such practices and lead to much greater facilitation of the processing of documents and release imported commercial goods.”
The examination of commercial imports will follow every Random Selection of Imported Goods for Examination exercise that the GRA conducts at its 200-201 Camp Street Headquarters.
It is an exercise where members of the public are invited to draw from a list of import declarations lodged at Customs and Trade Administration.
The Random Selection of Imported Goods for Examination will be conducted on a regular basis in the GRA’s compound and members of the public are invited to participate.
Information on the schedule dates for the Random Selection exercise and inspection of selected import declarations at the respective wharf or transit shed will be available on GRA’s facebook and twitter accounts.
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