A Malaysian timber company refused Wednesday to pay a 480,000 dollar fine to the government of Guyana, which accused it of under-reporting the number of logs harvested from local firms.

"We wouldn't pay until we have all the due process," Barama Company Limited chief executive Peter Ho told AFP. He added that current business and investment plans would be shelved until the current issue is resolved.

Though the company has a stockpile of logs, Ho warned that both the fines and suspension of the forest concessions could force the company to cut production and retrench some of its workers.

He could not say how soon workers would be retrenched because the company was still assessing the impact of the rulings by Guyana's forest regulator, the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC).

The Malaysian-owned firm has been operating in the northwestern Amazon jungle of the impoverished South American country at least 15 years.

BCL appealed to the GFC to hire internationally-recognized auditors, forestry consultants and other experts to investigate the issues, and determine the breaches, fines and suspension in a fair manner.

"The penalties imposed by GFC are severe, unclear, and in our opinion, arbitrary," the company said in a a statement.

The company, however, conceded there were a number of anomalies including unintentional mixing of tree tags between areas, and harvesting in areas where permits were still being processed.

But it denied the company did not declare to the GFC all the logs harvested.

The GFC said its probe found that BCL declared less logs than it harvested in July from privately owned Guyanese companies.

Guyana's agriculture minister, Robert Persaud, said he was dissatisfied with the responses given by BCL and the three Guyanese timber companies and he "further directed that all the prescribed sanctions be imposed immediately."