Officers from the Guyana Revenue Authority have visited the Smart City Solutions company over the charging of the Value Added Tax on the parking meter cards.

The visit came after the issue was brought to the attention of the Finance Ministry. A number of motorists started to raise worry after purchasing their cards to use at the paring meters and realising that the 14% tax was being applied.

Additionally some motorists said that they were being charged an additional 14% in taxes at the meters themselves when they use the cards.

Finance Minister Winston Jordan told the National Assembly on Monday night that the vat charges should only be applied to actual parking and not for the purchase of the card. He said they should be no double charging.

“That is an error on the part of the SCS. It is incorrect, the VAT is only supposed to go on the parking itself. Treat it the same way as how you treat the telephone cards. The VAT isn’t on the card it is on the telephone service itself,” Jordan explained.

However, the Public Relations Officer for Smart City Solutions, Kit Nascimento, told News Source that there are no double VAT charges.

Although some persons have provided receipts showing a $58 charge at the meters when they park for 15 minutes, Mr. Nascimento has said that if they check the balance on the card, it would reveal that only $50 would have been deducted.

He also said that the parking meter company is awaiting a response from the Ministry of Finance seeking a full Value Added Tax exemption. He said the company wrote to the Ministry over two months ago, asking that the parking meter service not attract VAT. He said a response has not been forthcoming.

The controversial parking meters went into operation last week, despite mostly a social media pushback.  Many persons have said that they do not believe the move to establish parking meters was handled properly.

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