NBR unhappy over poor use of ECR
Wednesday, 20 May 2009
Doulot Akter Mala
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) bemoaned over the poor use of Electronic Cash Register (ECR), as only 28 per cent businesses have installed the device until March.
The government's order on mandatory installation of ECR in all city corporations came into effect from January 1. Although the NBR has made a massive campaign to enforce the order, businesses hardly pay any heed to it.
Seven commissionarates of NBR inspected 2,727 shops in all city corporation areas across the country. They found only 782 shops and business houses have installed the ECR, while the remaining 1,945 shops are yet to respond to the order.
Most of the shops, which did not comply with the revenue board's order, are medium businesses, officials said.
Dhaka (South) VAT office has found that out of 738 establishments 363 businesses have installed ECR, while all 290 businesses under Dhaka (North) have installed ECR.
ECR implementation rates of Rajshahi, Khulna and Sylhet commissionarates are 57 per cent, 37 per cent and 21 per cent respectively.
The NBR has found extremely poor response from the businesses in Chittagong. Only 5.44 per cent businesses have installed the ECR until March. The Chittagong VAT commissionarates inspected 1,048 businesses, and found only 57 organisations have installed the device.
"We have noticed that some businesses purchased ECR, but are reluctant to operate it. They are continuing their business transactions manually as before to evade tax," a senior official of NBR told the FE.
Most of the medium businesses and shops are yet to comply with the government's order, he said adding that all the big shops and businesses have already installed the ECR.
Teams will launch a move after the budget to inspect the large and medium businesses to enforce the NBR order on ECR, he said. Besides, businesses in all district towns will have to install ECR from July 1.
The NBR recently sent a letter to all of its VAT commissionarates to monitor the sales situation of all the medium shops that are entitled to install ECR. Once the ECR is installed properly, VAT collection from service sector will rise significantly, he said.
The NBR is now adopting flexible policy to familiarise the use of ECR and ensure its acceptability among the businesses, the official added.
The government nine months back issued the order for installing ECR in shops in all city corporations to give enough time to the businesses for complying with the order. It has issued an order on April 17 last on mandatory installation of ECR.
Later on July 2, the government issued another order extending the timeframe to January 1, 2009.
Hotels, restaurants and fast-food shops, sweetmeat shops, furniture sales centres, beauty parlours, community centres, posh shopping centres in metropolitan areas, relevant business organisations, departmental stores, general stores and other big and medium (wholesale and retail) business organisations are the 10 service sectors that came under the mandatory installation of ECR order.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) bemoaned over the poor use of Electronic Cash Register (ECR), as only 28 per cent businesses have installed the device until March.
The government's order on mandatory installation of ECR in all city corporations came into effect from January 1. Although the NBR has made a massive campaign to enforce the order, businesses hardly pay any heed to it.
Seven commissionarates of NBR inspected 2,727 shops in all city corporation areas across the country. They found only 782 shops and business houses have installed the ECR, while the remaining 1,945 shops are yet to respond to the order.
Most of the shops, which did not comply with the revenue board's order, are medium businesses, officials said.
Dhaka (South) VAT office has found that out of 738 establishments 363 businesses have installed ECR, while all 290 businesses under Dhaka (North) have installed ECR.
ECR implementation rates of Rajshahi, Khulna and Sylhet commissionarates are 57 per cent, 37 per cent and 21 per cent respectively.
The NBR has found extremely poor response from the businesses in Chittagong. Only 5.44 per cent businesses have installed the ECR until March. The Chittagong VAT commissionarates inspected 1,048 businesses, and found only 57 organisations have installed the device.
"We have noticed that some businesses purchased ECR, but are reluctant to operate it. They are continuing their business transactions manually as before to evade tax," a senior official of NBR told the FE.
Most of the medium businesses and shops are yet to comply with the government's order, he said adding that all the big shops and businesses have already installed the ECR.
Teams will launch a move after the budget to inspect the large and medium businesses to enforce the NBR order on ECR, he said. Besides, businesses in all district towns will have to install ECR from July 1.
The NBR recently sent a letter to all of its VAT commissionarates to monitor the sales situation of all the medium shops that are entitled to install ECR. Once the ECR is installed properly, VAT collection from service sector will rise significantly, he said.
The NBR is now adopting flexible policy to familiarise the use of ECR and ensure its acceptability among the businesses, the official added.
The government nine months back issued the order for installing ECR in shops in all city corporations to give enough time to the businesses for complying with the order. It has issued an order on April 17 last on mandatory installation of ECR.
Later on July 2, the government issued another order extending the timeframe to January 1, 2009.
Hotels, restaurants and fast-food shops, sweetmeat shops, furniture sales centres, beauty parlours, community centres, posh shopping centres in metropolitan areas, relevant business organisations, departmental stores, general stores and other big and medium (wholesale and retail) business organisations are the 10 service sectors that came under the mandatory installation of ECR order.