In the last four years, the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) has been able to rake in over $800B in taxes. In 2017, the tax agency netted $171.1B while in 2018, the collections climbed to $198.5B, then to $225.9B and $218.3B in 2019 and 2020 respectively. This reflects a more than 12 percent increase in revenue collection since 2016. At that time, revenue had hovered around $151B.
According to the agency which is headed by Chartered Accountant and Attorney-at-Law, Godfrey Statia, the significant increases were due to improvements in tax collections and the closure of various loopholes in the system.
Given its outstanding performance in the last four years, Guyana Standard understands that the tax revenue outlook for 2021 is an anticipated 8.4 percent increase in income taxes. Intensified activity in the private sector, particularly as it relates to the oil and gas sector and other industries, is said to be one of the contributing factors to a projected increase in revenue collections for this year.
This news agency understands that Withholding tax – largely driven by remittances from companies involved in the extraction of crude oil – is expected to grow by 13.9 percent or $4.6 billion above 2020 collections.
Furthermore, expansion is expected from collections of customs and trade taxes, which are anticipated to grow by $3.3 billion to $24.6 billion in 2021. As regard collections from excise taxes and Value Added Tax (VAT), these are targeted at $40.1 billion and $53.6 billion, respectively.
