NBR to provide EFDs among shops with similar business

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has planned to distribute Electronic Fiscal Devices (EFDs) to shops selling similar types of products in a bid to maintain uniformity.
In the second phase, it will select businesses of same category or nature in an area or shopping mall to distribute EFDs, officials said.
Before that, the NBR's VAT Wing will assess the performance of 100 EFDs that it distributed on pilot basis from August 25.
On the basis of experience of the pilot programme on installing EFDs, the wing has planned to take the move.
Talking to the FE, the NBR Member (VAT implementation and IT) Md Jamal Hossain said they are considering installing EFDs in similar type of businesses to maintain uniformity.
"Shops selling similar types of products, such as sweetmeat, may get EFDs in the second phase."
He, however, said the NBR will assess how many EFDs will be needed in the second phase.
The NBR has already sent letters to all the VAT zones to assess feedbacks on the pilot-basis installation of EFDs.
In the letter, the member (VAT implementation and IT) requested the commissioners to send performance report on the 100 EFDs after monitoring those for 10 days.
The NBR also sought a list of similar types of shops, where EFDs will be installed in the second phase.
Talking to the FE, field-level officials said the NBR is addressing problems of the EFDs, installed in different shops and service providing organisations on pilot basis.
They said the second phase will be started after resolving the problems to ensure satisfaction of both businesses and consumers.
The NBR is distributing EFDs free-of-cost to the businesses in a bid to popularise recorded financial transactions in shops and service-providing organisations.
A senior field-level official said they are collecting feedbacks from the businesses, where EFDs were installed, and will respond to the NBR by this week on the basis of those feedbacks.
The official also said the businesses raise multiple problems on the installed EFDs, and vendors are immediately addressing those.
They have to address multiple types of problems, as the EFDs are installed in various kinds of businesses. He also preferred to maintain uniformity on businesses at the time of selecting those for EFD installation.
The NBR expects to install some 1,000 EFDs in phases by next three months.
EFDs are connected with the NBR server, known as Electronic Fiscal Device Management System (EFDMS), to track online transactions and ensure proper VAT collection.
Earlier, the NBR Chairman Abu Hena MD Rahmatul Muneem said the consumers will be incentivised through lottery for taking EFD-generated vouchers.
The VAT Online Project, the automated VAT system implementing agency, has already purchased 0.1 million EFDs at a cost of Tk 3.17 billion.
The shops and service providers that have been brought under the mandatory use of the EFDs or POS, include residential hotels, restaurants, sweetmeat shops, furniture shops, clothing stores, electronic/electrical household items selling stores, super shops, jewellery shops, cinema halls and coaching centres.
Some 24 categories of products and services, having annual turnover above Tk 5.0 million each, will come under EFD coverage.

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