Majority of Private schools non-compliant; VAT to stay- President Granger

The 14 percent Valued Added Tax that is now applied to Private Education fees will stay. This is according to President David Granger late this afternoon (Wednesday, March 1, 2017) in an invited comment.

The President says the decision to continue in this direction is based on the high rate of non compliance by private schools. “There are about 57 private schools, 8 of them seem to be what we call tax compliant which means that 49 are not compliant…as it is now the tax stays.”

This was one of the matters discussed by Cabinet yesterday and Finance Minister, Winston Jordan has been mandated to inform the public on the matter shortly.

The aim of the move President Granger says is not to burden Guyanese but to ensure that everyone pays their fair share and he adds that “there is obviously tremendous sympathy for the families and for the students” who will be affected.

In recent weeks there has been much criticism directed at the Coalition Government for its decision to remove Educational services from the list of zero-rated VAT items.

Just yesterday, Businessman, Roshan Khan and a small number of supporters picketed the Guyana Revenue Authority’s Head quarters calling for a reversal.

There is also the online and written petition mounted by a group of students that urged Government to review and reverse the decision.