The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) is on the hunt for at least 36 specialists for its Petroleum Revenue Department. These experts would add to the 31 already on staff and boost the agency’s capability to conduct petroleum tax audits, data analysis, and effective monitoring aboard the nation’s floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels.
For the time being, the tax regulator is conducting rigorous training of staff for various audit functions throughout the authority to build a repository of necessary skill sets and competencies.
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This is noted in the Guyana Auditor General’s report, a document prepared by office of Guyana’s chief auditor annually, of all public accounts.
According to Auditor General, Deodat Sharma’s 2021 report, GRA explained that multiple training sessions were held by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to build capacity to administer domestic taxes within the oil and gas sector. The authority said this included training in statutory interpretations, taxation of subsidiaries and external companies in Guyana, identifying the taxpayer and taxable sources of income, risks to an understatement of chargeable income, and taxation of resident and non-resident companies.
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GRA is one of the key entities monitoring the nation’s crude production to ensure the fiscal integrity of the operations is not compromised.
In 2021, the country’s crude oil production increased by 56.9% to 42.7 million barrels, when compared with 27.2 million barrels in 2020, averaging production of approximately 117,000 barrels per day. GRA was central to monitoring this production onboard the Liza Destiny FPSO.
As a result of the increased output, real oil GDP grew by 19.9% in 2021.
