NBR bins plan to purchase electronic cash registers
The National Board of Revenue has abandoned plans to buy electronic cash registers (ECR) and distribute them among retailers and wholesalers.
Instead, the revenue authority plans to enlist importers, offer duty-free benefits and ask shopkeepers to install the devices for recording sales data electronically, senior officials of the NBR said.
Md Rezaul Hasan, project director of the VAT Online Project, said proper implementation of the new law on value added tax necessitated the government to make the purchase.
“As the implementation of the VAT law has been deferred by two years, we will issue circular soon asking businesses to install ECRs with certain specifications.”
Another reason for scrapping the purchase decision is that providing after-sales service for the ECRs is not a manageable proposition for the NBR, said VOP Deputy Project Director Syed Mushfequr Rahman.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith in his 2017-18 budget speech had said that the government was procuring electronic fiscal devices to distribute them among the business community at cost price.
“In addition, the government is also working to develop a mobile application, which will help taxpayers cross-check whether the VAT they pay is indeed deposited into the government exchequer,” he had said in June.
The revenue authority earlier planned to procure 10,000 ECRs for large shops, wholesalers, restaurants and other businesses. Under a pilot phase, it found 8,007 entities eligible for ECR use.
Taxmen said revenue collection from retail and wholesale traders and restaurants would increase once they start using electronic sales recording machines with fiscal memory devices, which leave no scope for manipulating data. Retail and wholesale trade account for 10.97 percent and hotels and restaurants 13.54 percent of Bangladesh's GDP, which the World Bank estimated to be $221 billion in 2016.
Taxmen said tax potential from retail and wholesale remains highly untapped due to poor compliance and evasion.
Rahman also said the NBR would procure software and hardware to connect the ECRs at shops to monitor transactions.
The NBR plans to ensure installation of 10,000 ECRs initially out of its planned total of 1 lakh, he added.
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