High Court says GRA acted illegally in another re-migrant tax exemption case

Last Updated on Saturday, 14 February 2026, 1:15 by Writer

The Guyana Supreme Court has on Friday delivered a decisive judgement in a case where one Bibi Mohamed sued Godfrey Statia, Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), according to the woman’s lawyer, Siand Dhurjon.

Mr Dhurjon said the High Court declared that the Applicant is lawfully entitled to the exemptions in accordance with law and that the GRA’s imposed requirements—bank statements, tax returns, and source-of-funds information—”were arbitrary, ultra vires, unreasonable, irrational, unfair, an abuse of power, whimsical, capricious, and without any legal foundation or authority.”

The Court went further and issued orders of certiorari quashing both the unlawful requirements themselves and the subsequent denial of the exemptions which was founded upon them.

He said the Court also issued a writ of mandamus compelling the GRA to approve all applicable customs, excise, and value-added tax exemptions in favour of Ms Mohamed within 14 days of her supplying a quotation for a vehicle of her choosing, and to forthwith take all steps necessary to clear and release the vehicle upon payment of the taxes properly applicable to her as a remigrant.

In at least the fourth known case of this kind, the Supreme Court rejected the GRA’s continued requiring of source of funds information from remigrants before they could be permitted tax concessions on a vehicle.

Mr Dhurjon related that Justice Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus also granted declarations and coercive reliefs, including orders of certiorari, quashing the findings of the GRA, and mandamus commanding it to act lawfully.

The judge awarded costs in favour of Ms. Mohamed in the sum of GY$600,000 which she ordered the GRA to pay no later than 27^th March, 2026, the lawyer said.

Ms. Mohamed had been deemed a remigrant by the Minister of Foreign Affairs since 5^th April 2024. This automatically entitled Ms. Mohamed to exemptions from customs, excise, and value-added taxes on importing one vehicle of her choice.

According to her counsel, once that status was granted, the role of the GRA is purely administrative: to process and give effect to the concessions provided by law.

The Customs Act requires that the tax exemptions be used within six months of becoming a remigrant.

However, Mr Dhurjon said the GRA embarked on a prolonged course of delaying the Applicant’s application for tax exemptions by demanding bank statements, tax returns, and other “source of funding” information on at least three occasions.

He said no such documents are required by law before remigrant concessions must be granted.

These demands continued even after the Applicant had complied with every request made of her and supplied all of the bank statements and tax information which she had around 28^th August 2024, the lawyer said.

Mr Dhurjon said officers of the GRA went as far as interrogating Ms. Mohamed about her source of funds documents in October, 2025 at the GRA Headquarters.

According to court documents, it was only until after almost seven months on 2^nd April, 2025 that Mr. Gavin Low, the Deputy Commissioner of the GRA, wrote her and told her that the GRA had to refuse her tax exemptions because too much time had passed.

In its affidavit before the Court, the GRA asserted that it indeed had the power to impose additional requirements before granting exemptions and to seek source of funding information under the anti-money laundering legislation.

However, the woman’s lawyer said the GRA was unable to identify what exactly was the shortcoming in Ms. Mohamed’s application and why her application was not approved in light of her having supplied the source of funding information.

During the proceedings, the GRA heatedly objected to paragraphs of Ms. Mohamed’s evidence on the ground that they were hearsay, despite the fact that the contents of those paragraphs referred to the GRA’s own communications with Ms. Mohamed’s agent through the electronic customs system.

Ms. Mohamed through her lawyer was successful in demonstrating that she had complied with all lawful requirements to be granted her tax concessions and that any delay was caused entirely by the GRA’s own unlawful demands and conduct.

After Mr. Dhurjon said he wrote Mr. Gavin Low seeking a reversal of the GRA’s decision and the award of the tax exemptions in all the circumstances, the GRA maintained its position that Ms. Mohamed was not eligible because of the passage of time.

Ms. Mohamed then approached the Court since September, 2025 seeking its intervention to resolve her problem.

In addition to the substantive reliefs granted, the Court awarded costs in the sum of $600,000 to be paid by the GRA to the Applicant on or before 27 March 2026.

Reacting to the High Court’s decision, Mr Dhurjon said he was pleased with the judge’s ruling as his client sought nothing more than equal treatment under the law.

He stated that it was regrettable that the GRA continues to entrench itself in illegal conduct and persists in activity that was ordered against it by the Court’s in strong terms on at least four occasions as there are other such cases in the pipeline.