Businesses to get those at purchase price of Tk 32,000

The government will provide electronic sales registers to businesses at its purchase price of Tk 32,000, which it will recoup in instalments, said Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yesterday.

“They would pay back the cost of the machines in instalments,” he told reporters after the meeting of the cabinet committee on purchase, where the decision to place the order for 10,000 machines was taken.

The order to acquire the machines, termed as Electronic Fiscal Device (EFD), would be placed without delay, he said.

A joint venture between China-based SZZT and Synesis IT has become the lowest bidder to supply the EFDs.

One lakh EFDs would be purchased in total. The orders for the rest would be placed in phases and from different sources to avoid any problems, he said, adding that businesses would be responsible for the maintenance of the devices.

With the approval, the much-talked about EFD system finally looks close to materialisation, two years after the National Board of Revenue (NBR) had decided to buy the e-sales devices to distribute among the relatively larger retail and wholesale stores to ensure the actual amount of VAT paid by consumers comes to the coffer.

The plan was also aimed at bringing retail and wholesale sellers under an automated system to implement the VAT and Supplementary Duty Act 2012, which came into effect from July 1 with four major rates: 5 percent, 7.5 percent, 10 percent and 15 percent.

VAT is the biggest source of revenue, accounting for 37 percent of total annual tax collection, but taxmen and economists said the overall collection is less than the amount expected, given the level of economic activities.

The NBR said 25 types of businesses -- including corner shops, restaurants and clothing and furniture stores -- will have to use the EFDs to record their transactions automatically from this fiscal year.

The EFDs would be connected to the EFD management system at the NBR through the internet.

Initially, the NBR targeted November 1, 2018 to install the EFDs at stores but it could not complete its own preparations. The NBR floated the latest tender to buy the devices in December last year.

Kamal admitted the government is lagging behind.

Two lakh machines would be needed in the next two years, he said, adding that manpower would be outsourced to provide support to businesses for maintenance.

“We will train them. So, we think we will not fail because the VAT rates that we have kept are one of the lowest in the world,” he said, adding that the rates were fixed in line with the demands of the businesses.

He, however, said the goal of increasing revenue collection would not be attained without the support of the citizens.