VAT manipulation by restaurants

There are a large number of restaurants in Dhaka. The government rule stipulates that restaurants pay a 15 per cent VAT on their income. But in reality what they are doing is completely opposite to what they should have done. A number of restaurants have installed the Electronic Cash Register Machine (ECR) at their cash counters but others have not. There are also a number of restaurants which are not making receipts with the ECR machine just to hide their actual income.
Sometimes, the customers are also a bit reluctant to pay VAT and ask for the cashiers to make hand written receipts instead. In reality, the restaurants located on the outskirts of the city are not paying heed to government instructions regarding VAT. The authority concerned needs to take proper actions to realise VAT.

Ahmed Rezaul Haque
East West University