The National Board of Revenue will officially introduce the Electronic Fiscal Device (EFD) from the next fiscal to streamline the revenue collection and intercept tax dodging. According to NBR sources, 25 types of business sales points will mandatorily have to use this device to keep the documents of their transactions accurately.
The EFD or Point of Sales (POS) software installed at the business outlets, will directly be connected with the VAT online server of NBR. NBR officials from their commissionerate office will monitor the activities of this device. NBR sources said they initially would provide 10,000 business outlets with this device that would be extended gradually.
According to Bangladesh Shop Owners’ Association data, there are currently some 30 lakhs shops across the country. Syed Musfiqur Rahman, Project Director of NBR’s VAT online project told that they will provide 10,000 EFDs to the selected business outlets by the August next.
“Throughout the fiscal a total of 90,000 EFD will be set up across the country,” he said.
According to a SRO issued by NBR, any business sales center having an annual turnover more than Tk 50,00,000 must set up EFD or POS software to keep the data of his or her sales voucher. Every EFD will be registered with a Business Identification Number. If any sales outlet contains multiple business counters, all EFDs there will be registered with the same BIN.
The EFD will have the capability of automatically deducting VAT at five rates, the NBR introduced in the new law, VAT officials said. The device must have the option to print out the challan of sold items, the said. Apart from this, the EFD while processing of sold receipt must contain the name and address of business entity, BIN, fiscal memory number, description of sold items or services, total value of the good, and VAT deducted from that value.
The business operators will have to preserve these data for the next five years so that the revenue authority can achieve it if needed.
However, the NBR is still found in a sluggish move to implement the project as the projected number of EFD will be set up in the next fiscal is fewer compared with the actual number of shops across the country.
However, Helal Uddin, president of the Shop Owner Association told Bangladesh Post that though there are around 30 lakhs of shops in the country, 70-80 percent of them do not have the annual turnover worth Tk 50,00,000. As per this turnover limit, there are some 5-7 lakh of business sales outlets that must use EFD, he said.
“We are ready to cooperate with NBR so that they can implement the new VAT law through developing their infrastructural capacity,” he added. Earlier, the NBR introduced ECR machine at the business outlets to keep the sales transaction documents. But lion portion of the country’s traders did not set up that machine.
Besides, many of them who used the machine, deleted the actual transaction documents through tempering the data of the machine.
NBR officials with this regard said the EFD is more competent and technologically sound. Besides, it will be connected with the main server of the NBR. So there is no scope of tempering this machine and manipulate transaction the data.
According to the new VAT law, the traders will have to pay the money on a monthly basis. Here they must pay the VAT to the government treasury within the deadline. If any businessperson does not do this, the tax officials will be able to suspend the facility of paying their VAT online through the EFD software, tax officials said.
The business sector, where the EFD machine will have been set up are- residential hotel, restaurant and fast food shop, decorators and caters house, motor workshop or dockyard, advertisement agency, community center, sweet-meat shop, courier and express mail service, and beauty parlor.
Besides, Super shop, departmental shop, shops at shopping mall, readymade garment shop, coaching center, and electrical and electronic appliance shops will also have to set up EFD to maintain their transaction documents.
