GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC—Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday declared war on gold smugglers and threatened that the Government of Guyana would tighten sanctions, including forfeiture of assets and harsh penalties for large-scale miners found smuggling.
During his weekly press briefing, Jagdeo said the Government has long been aware of gold smuggling in the country, noting that the authorities were even able to detect sophisticated methods smugglers use to extract the precious metal.
While he did not state why sufficient efforts were not made to tackle the problem, Jagdeo said smugglers might have been emboldened by the small penalty attached to criminal charges.
“So we may want to take what we do at Customs now and introduce it here for the evasion of gold. Not only do you pay the forgone, but you also have to pay a huge penalty in multiples of the evading taxes. So, if you get caught, there is a big risk. First, you get charged under an Act with severe penalties. Secondly, there is a big financial risk because you have massive fines; and thirdly, we may have to start exploring what we did under the Laws dealing with Money laundering or Drug trafficking, forfeiture of assets,” Jagdeo said.
He also touted closer collaboration with local and international law enforcement agencies to arrest the smuggling trade.
“We have to strengthen the system. How do we deter smuggled gold now? Smuggled gold doesn’t come through any system because they tried to avoid taxes, such as royalty payments and the 5% final tax. It could be used for money laundering purposes, so we’d have to get help from the receiving countries, but we’d also have to strengthen the system of penalties, not against small people but against these big exporters, “the Vice President told a news conference.
In addition, the Vice President said the Government would also have to increase the financial penalties for perpetrators. He said this act has been ongoing for too long, and the country has lost billions in revenue annually.
He said despite all the Government has been doing for the industry and the incentives given to miners, many miners still need help to rob the state of its royalties.
“But still no compliance because the rewards of smuggling seem to be greater. The foregone tax revenue seems to be a big incentive; we have to take away that incentive now by putting a regime of penalties and sanctions if you get caught smuggling the large quantity of gold,” Jagdeo pointed out.
He added that the Government would also be zooming in on gold declared legally and shipped through the system.
He said the Government would have to work closely with other countries to ensure the quantity of gold declared and the amount of gold received are the same.
In its report, the US Treasury Department stated that its investigations revealed that the Mohamed family, now facing sanctions, could move hundreds of pounds of gold out of Guyana illegally by bribing Government and customs officials.
The report also stated that the Mohameds dodged the payment of more than US$50 million in taxes to the Guyana Government by its alleged actions.
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