The Guyana Used Tyres Association (GUTA) on Tuesday questioned the reason for the Government to ban specific categories of used tyres in Guyana, while describing the situation as “unfair.”
According to Jerome Khan, Attorney-at-Law representing GUTA, “only certain classes of tyres are being restricted…If your concern is about used tyres why only choose mini-buses, SUVs, small pickups and cars? So it seems to me an unfair situation…If Government wants to do this then it should be across the board.”
Moreover, Khan opined that it will prove to be very difficult for Government to justify their ban of used tyres since there is no definitive standard set.
“In the absence of any definitive type of standard such as thread wear or thread depth, it would be difficult for government to justify that used tyres coming in this country ought not to come. Because used tyres are based on shelf life, years of use, miles, kilometers of use, etcetera,” he said while Vice President of the GUTA, Mohamed Mustaak supported him.
“Some kind of solution can be reached where the members can be given specific guidelines coming out of the Guyana Bureau of Standards on what they can and cannot import in the country. These guidelines will then be used to contact their suppliers overseas to say that you have to confer with these guidelines, if not we cannot import the used tyres.”
The Association during a press briefing on Tuesday continued their call for the Government to revisit their decision and engage with them in order to arrive at a solution that will be beneficial to all parties involved.
The ban on the use of used tyres on mini-buses, SUVs, small pickups, jeeps and cars came into effect on April 1 2017, after being introduced in the 2016 Budget Presentations last year.
Since then, the GUTA as well as stakeholders have staged numerous protests calling for the ban to be lifted.
The Association had posited that the revenues generated by ‘good used tyres’ are in excess of GYD$100M annually, but with the ban in effect that figure would be halved.
GUTA, which is comprised of approximately 36 used tyre businesses, says that they employ in excess of 5,000 employees. As such, business owners have in the past noted that “ we already have a struggling economy and if we have to put 5000 more people on the bread line, I don’t think that it is going to be good for social cohesion.”
