GEORGETOWN: One day after Government confirmed that a major investigation has been launched into a huge gold smuggling racket that has been negatively impacting the economy, there are more details emerging about the secretive trade.
The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) has stepped into the matter, too, saying that the tax collection agency is concerned about the revelations and is launching its own probe, while stating that the possibilities of Customs officers being part of the scheme is unlikely.
Initial indications were that 10,000-15,000 ounces of gold were leaving Guyana weekly – the majority for the US. It appears now that the Suriname route has been the one preferred by both illegal and licenced traders.
Illegal traders, according to Government officials and investigators, used planes at the Ogle Airport to take the gold to Suriname, without even declaring what was on board.
Other traders, some of them licenced, also preferred to fly direct to Suriname with their precious cargo, under-declaring the amounts or sometimes not declaring it at all.
Sometimes the flights were officially filed to fly to Berbice but instead, the planes ended up in Suriname.
Quite a significant amount of gold, not declared to the Guyana Gold Board and other authorities, was also being flown to neighbouring Brazil.
The extent of the smuggling rackets, involving several licenced traders and independent operators, has the new Government worried because of the taxes and royalties being lost, amounting to billions of dollars annually.
Officials knowledgeable about the rackets said that investigators should examine paperwork relating to the gold being declared in Guyana by the traders as against what is declared in countries like the US, Suriname and Brazil. It would most likely also reveal a significant number of under-declarations on official documents in Guyana.
