At present, online VAT registration of 100% eligible institutions has been completed. As a result, about 73 % of returns are being submitted online.
According to the National Board of Revenue, automated accounting is mandatory for 25 types of businesses with an annual turnover or total turnover of more than Tk. 5 crore.
In such a situation, former NBR member Rezaul Hasan has emphasized bringing most of the VAT registered organizations under EFD.
Officials at the NBR’s VAT department said huge amounts of VAT were evaded at the retail and wholesale levels. If properly covered, revenue will be earned manifold from this sector. This will be possible if all retail and wholesale businesses are brought under the automation.
According to sources, the Board of Revenue is going to install Electronic Fiscal Device or EFD in various business establishments in big cities including Dhaka and Chittagong in the next one year in the proposed budget of 2022-23 FY to implement the target. For this, 10,000 machines will be installed to stop VAT evasion. Then if EFD is used in business, the calculation of VAT money will automatically go to the main server of NBR. In this system, the hiding of information will be stopped and the actual information of daily transactions will be known. This will reduce fraud; eventually, revenue will increase.
Regarding the proposed budget in this regard, Finance Minister AHM Mostafa Kamal said, “In order to increase revenue collection in various types of retail and wholesale businesses, the electronic fiscal system of modern technology was introduced for the first time in the budget of FY 2020-21. Since then 4,595 machines have been installed. Plans have been made to install a total of 10,000 EFD machines in various businesses by June 2023. In addition to keeping this program running, the issue of setting up machines through outsourcing is under process. As a result of this step, I hope that VAT collection will reach the desired level by 2026.