The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has decided to clamp down on business entities which have not installed electronic fiscal devices (EFDs) in city corporation areas from November 1, and in district towns from December 1.
The government earlier made the use of EFDs mandatory for 13 types of business entities, to check Value Added Tax (VAT) evasion, reports UNB.
The NBR issued an order in this regard in August.
The new EFD will replace the existing electronic cash register (ECR) and point of sales (POS) systems.
The 13 types of businesses include hotels, restaurants, fast food outlets, confectionaries, jewellers, beauty salons, furniture shops, RMG shops or boutiques, electronics shops, community centres, all business entities in shopping malls, departmental stores, general stores or super shops, wholesalers and large retail stores.
"This (installation of EFDs) will enable the NBR to have real-time access to business transactions, which will protect revenue leakage and increase revenue collection significantly," Finance Minister AMA Muhith had said in his speech on the national budget forFY19.
If any business entity does not use the EFD or misuse of the device is proved,the offending business will have to pay between Tk20-50,000. If the offence is committed repeatedly, then the NBR will lock the Business Identification Number (BIN) of the offender.
The EFDs will be connected to a server at the NBR. Any entry from a particular business entity will be registered at this server.
"This will bring transparency, and the scope to evade VAT will be restricted. As a result, revenue collection will improve," a senior NBR official said.
He added that EFDs will help curb evasion asthe connection to the server will generate real time data on sales at shops.
He also mentioned that customers will be able to know if the VAT they paid went to the national exchequer, as they will receive a code that will be generated by the NBR's central server.
In 2008, the NBR had made the use ofECRs mandatory for 11 types of businesses: hotels, restaurants, confectionaries, jewellers, beauty salons, wholesalers, and large retail stores.
However, the decision was not effectively implemented.Many businesses did not use the ECR even after installation,in order to evade VAT, allegedly in connivance with field officials of the revenue authority. Several thousand shops have now installed ECRs or POS systems, and many of these are still unused in order to evade VAT.
The NBR also planned to buy 10,000 ECRs for large shops, wholesalers, restaurants and other businesses as part of its target to implement the VAT Law 2012 inFY18, but the plan was scrapped after the government deferred the implementation of the law by two years.
