Commissioner-General of the Guyana Revenue Authority, Godfrey Statia has reported that the total revenue collection from January to December 2019 amounted to $225.9B. This, he said, represents a 27.4B or 13.8% increase when compared to 2018.
Statia described the increase as ‘sizable’, while noting that the growth continues to be in double figures since 2016. He attributed this increase to the “wide-ranging changes” and the widening of the tax base.
He also reported that during 2019, arrear payments amounted to some $5.08B.
As it relates to Value Added Tax (VAT) and Excise Tax, the Authority collected $96.5B as at December 31, 2019.
The sum of $34B or 32.6% of the total revenue collected by Internal Revenue came from the Private Sector through Corporation Tax.
With regards to Personal Income Tax (PAYE), total revenue collected for 2019 amounted to $28.3B or 27.1% of the total revenue collected by Internal Revenue. For Import Duties, total revenue collected amounted to $22.14B or 88.2% of the total revenue collected by Customs.
Meanwhile, total refunds paid by the GRA amounted to $3.33B, and these refunds were paid across the following tax types/functional areas: Mortgage Interest Relief (MIR) refunds for 2019 amounted to $354.9M, which is $167.9M above the 2018 period; Internal Revenue (IR) refunds for December 2019 amounted to $7.3M and for the period January to December 2019, $15M.
Customs refunds for 2019 amounted to $147.7M, while Value Added Tax (VAT) refunds amounted to $2.82B, or $144.9M above the 2018 period.
