Damion Mitchell, Staff ReporterGOVERNMENT IS being defrauded millions of dollars in taxes as a result of the under-invoicing of imported produce, Mike Surridge, head of the Financial Investigation Division (FID) said yesterday.
The extent of the fraud, is however, unclear.
Speaking with The Gleaner, Mr. Surridge said the under-invoicing has been occurring at the Customs Department.
However, the scale of the frequency with which imported produce is under-invoiced, and the amount of lost revenue to government coffers, are still undetermined as Mr. Surridge said his investigations into the practice were only at the half-way stage.
According to him, carrots which were invoiced to Customs at $2.50, were sold for $10.64 following Hurricane Ivan last September. The same, he said, for tomatoes that were sold for $20.05 although being invoiced to Customs at $1.75. Mr. Surridge added that cabbage which was invoiced at Customs for $2.25 was eventually passed on to consumers at $12.65.
"When you multiply this by the quantity being delivered, we (government) were defrauded by millions of dollars," the FID boss explained.
HURRICANE IVAN
The government had asked the FID head to probe the circumstances under which vege-tables were imported through Customs into the island. This was following Hurricane Ivan which devastated the agriculture sector. A number of outlets reportedly hiked the price of imported produce, despite a significant reduction in the duties on cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, and cucumbers.
Mr. Surridge also told The Gleaner that two of the hundreds of invoices he has already examined, amounted to some $1 million being swindled in Customs duties.
He said he was expecting to complete his investigation by the end of the month and that he would be recommending harsh actions against implicated importers .
The Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) of the Ministry of Commerce came under fire late last year, after it was revealed it conducted faulty price surveys on a number of Corporate Area retail outlets.
The CAC was confronted by retailers whose supermarkets were identified as being involved in excessive pricing of imported vegetables. Following that, Commerce Minister Phillip Paulwell asked for a report on the CAC's price survey mechanism.
The faulty price survey investigations eventually led to the resignation of Raymond Pryce, the CAC's director of information, research and communication, and the reprimanding of Dolsie Allen, the CAC's chief executive officer.
Mr. Pryce was later reinstated in his job.
