Georgetown: Inspections of commercial imports that were earmarked under the manual Random Selection of Goods for Examination process have been successfully carried out since the process commenced.
During this week, three examinations were conducted in the presence of the importers, representatives from the Guyana Revenue Authority’s (GRA’s) Internal Affairs, Enforcement and Goods Examination Units, brokers, members of the press among others.
Two of the consignments; one at the Demerara Shipping Company Ltd containing cartoon boxes of sandals and the other at the John Fernandes Limited Transit Shed with containers of Harris Paint, were cleared for release after no discrepancies were identified.
The third inspection that was done on a Tipper Truck at the Muneshwers Transit Shed on Wednesday, February 12, 2014 and it was found that there was an inconsistency with the chassis number recorded on the importation document as against that of the vehicle. Difficulty by the importer to open the passenger side door of the truck was another issue discovered. An inquiry is to be made on the two impediments identified by the Customs Officer in the other witnesses’ presence.
The GRA will be notifying the public of future inspections of this nature resulting from the manual Random Selection of Goods for Examination exercises that are being held regularly at its 200-201 Camp Street headquarters.
The Random Selection exercise is a prerequisite to the goods examination process which involve members of the public drawing from a list of import declarations lodged with the Customs and Trade Administration Department.
Commissioner General of the GRA Mr. Khurshid Sattaur had recently expressed confidence in the process, as one that will significantly impact on the level of transparency that is associated with the activity. While recognizing that there are a number of importers who are compliant with the laws administered by the GRA, he noted that there are those who are bent on ripping off the State.
Introduced as a new initiative by the GRA in 2014, the manual Random Selection of Goods for Examination exercises seeks to promote transparency in goods examination processes.
You must be logged in to post a comment.