…AG says judgment “contradicts every material aspect” of earlier decision
A fresh judgment handed down on Monday by Acting Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Roxane George, has provided strong legal backing for the Guyana Revenue Authority’s (GRA) post-clearance audit powers, a ruling Attorney General Anil Nandlall says strikes at the heart of the national debate that erupted following last week’s controversial High Court decision on the same issue.
Speaking on Issues in the News last evening, the Attorney General broke down the judgment in Zhang Zhenyu v GRA , calling it “important,” “timely,” and “absolutely contradictory in every material respect” to the ruling delivered days earlier by Justice Gino Persaud, who had found that GRA’s post-clearance audit system was unlawful.
In the Zhang Zhenyu matter, Justice George rejected every claim brought by the importer, who challenged a reassessment issued 18 months after his goods were cleared. The importer had argued that once the GRA accepted his declarations and allowed the goods to leave the wharf, the agency could not return later to reassess.
Justice George disagreed entirely.
In her ruling, she stated, “I do not consider the complaint that the assessment by the PCAU (post-clearance audit unit) was unlawful has any merit. The PCAU is clearly a department within the GRA. There is no evidence to support the contention that this unit is without statutory power… and there is most certainly no evidence that it is unconstitutional.”
She went further, confirming that Section 4 of the Customs Act legally permits such a unit and that the Commissioner-General is not required to carry out audits personally.
On the core question of whether GRA can reassess taxes after goods have been cleared, the Chancellor declared:
“The provisions identified by the GRA permit the re-assessment of taxes after goods have been entered and cleared… the GRA may request documentation to be produced to substantiate the declarations made.”
The Chancellor also dismissed the request for repayment of sums already paid, and ordered the applicant to pay $250,000 in costs.
Nandlall noted that this ruling directly supports GRA’s stance in the widely-publicised matter involving businessman Azruddin Mohamed. He pointed to the C32 declaration form, a document every importer signs, where Mohamed explicitly acknowledged that:
“The Guyana Revenue Authority can review and reassess values… within seven years should further evidence be obtained based on the findings of further investigations.”
The Attorney General said this acknowledgment alone undermines claims that GRA cannot conduct post-clearance audits or revisit declared values.
According to him, Justice George’s ruling validates GRA’s argument that importers cannot “make a false declaration… and once their goods have been entered and cleared, the authority would not be able to conduct a further assessment.”
“That,” he stressed, “is exactly what the GRA contends happened in the motor vehicle matter.”
Nandlall warned that removing or weakening post-clearance audit powers would create national chaos and open avenues for fraud, noting that Guyana imports roughly 100,000 containers each year.
“If customs officers must interrogate every item before release,” he said, “containers will spend months on the wharf.”
The Attorney General emphasised that the Chancellor’s judgment protects the integrity of the tax system, which he described as the “lifeblood” of the state.
Nandlall also touched briefly on another ruling delivered Monday, in which Justice George dismissed a constitutional challenge filed by officials of the Guyana Teachers’ Union and the Guyana Public Service Union regarding appointments to the Constitutional Reform Commission. That matter too ended with costs awarded against the applicants.
Throughout the programme, Nandlall underscored that the Chancellor’s analysis, from the legality of the PCAU to the power to reassess taxes years later, directly contradicts the earlier High Court ruling that set off the public debate.
The GRA, he said, is legally empowered to revisit declarations, demand documentation, block importers from clearing new goods, and recover short-paid taxes, all without needing to file criminal charges.
As he put it, “I want this discussion to be educational… and this judgment is clear.”
He confirmed that both the judgment and the C32 declaration form have been circulated to the press so the public can review the documents themselves.
