The Attorney General (AG) has been removed as a party from an action filed by Atlantic Fuels Inc (AFI) against the Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and others.
According to a press release yesterday from the Ministry of Legal Affairs, the AG succeeded in an application to be removed as a party from the action and was awarded $75,000 in costs by Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire.
Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC said that his application was granted on January 11th.
According to the release, Atlantic Fuels Inc. (AFI) which is licenced to import and store fuel in Guyana had taken the GRA and the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) to court over the seizure and detention of fuel it imported.
The AG had been named a respondent to that action.
According to Nandlall, he had argued that he should not have been named a party in the proceedings since no order was requested against the AG neither was any allegation of wrongdoing made against the AG.
Further, Nandlall said he argued that both the Revenue Authority, and the GEA are bodies corporate, which are not represented by the Attorney General’s Chambers.
The action now continues with the other parties.
The AG’s release said that on November 1st last, AFI attempted to import a consignment of 635,353 litres of diesel fuel into the country, but that the GEA in a letter dated 3rd December 2020, indicated that investigations had revealed that the fuel was purchased from Staatsolie, a Surinamese Company, as opposed to Global Oil.
According to the release, AFI said that GEA claims to be in possession of an invoice from Staatsolie, which it said was materially different from the invoice submitted by AFI in terms of the purchaser, and the quantity of oil purchased.
As a consequence, the shipment of fuel was, and remains detained, and AFI was served with a summons to attend the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court on 4th January 2021 on a charge of “causing to be made and subscribed a false declaration to the GRA” contrary to section 217(1)(a) of the Customs Act.
According to the AG, in the action, AFI disputes making the alleged false declaration, but argues that even if a false declaration was made, that does not permit the detention of the fuel.
As such, AFI is asking the High Court to grant several orders including an Order of Mandamus compelling the GRA to release the fuel for which it has already paid customs and other taxes.
The applicant company also wants, according to the release, an Order of Mandamus compelling the GEA to mark the fuel in respect of which marking costs have already been paid for and to also order the GRA to compensate it for the storage costs owed to China Zhonghao Inc. which has accumulated because of the seizure and detention of the fuel.
AFI is also asking the GRA and GEA to pay the costs of its legal fees for bringing the action.
