Government's revenue authority has planned to establish interlink between the electronic cash register (ECR) of shops and the VAT online system to crosscheck transaction data for preventing tax evasion.
There will be a chip in the ECR machine to help the VAT (value-added tax) officials to access information through a server to be set up in the National Board of Revenue (NBR) office.
As per the NBR guidelines, some 11 categories of shops have to install ECR mandatorily to keep all transaction and sales data.
Talking to the FE, a senior NBR official said the board recommends installation of a fiscal machine for storing data.
"We would not recommend any category of the machine. Any of the fiscal machines can be chosen by the businesses or shop owners," he said.
Information cannot be modified or removed from the fiscal machine unless it is hacked, he added.
There are allegations of doctoring sales data in ECR machine to evade payment of actual amount of the value tax.
NBR officials expect the system to run smoothly after enforcement of the new VAT law from July 1, 2016.
All of the sale transactions, payment of VAT and submission of VAT returns can be conducted online after enforcement of the new VAT law.
SA Kader Keron, president of Bangladesh Shop Owners Association, said superstores can afford the ECR but it is burdensome for the small and medium shops.
"Profit level remains low in those shops as consumers bargain here," he said.
Consumers want products at lower prices and do not want to pay the VAT in those shops, he added.
Meanwhile, the NBR has taken several steps to popularise the ECR machine, including ECR mela (fair) organised by VAT offices last week.
Both businesses and VAT officials came to know about different types of ECR machines and functions in the ECR fairs.
"We recently organised an ECR and POS mela at Gulshan to motivate businesses to install the machine and know about it," said Masud Sadiq, commissioner of Dhaka North VAT, Customs and Excise Commissionerate.
Five ECR-selling companies participated in the fair and sold 18 ECRs on the spot.
"Almost 80 per cent of the eligible businesses have installed ECR under the VAT office. There are above 1200 ECRs under the commissinerate," he said.
Md Jamal Hossain, commissioner of Customs, Excise and VAT Commissionerate, Jessore, said the VAT office will arrange ECR mela on April 9 to help people get acclimatized to the use of electronic register.
"Businesses can keep accounts easily and revenue officer can ensure tax compliance with the use of ECR," he said.
Earlier, the NBR had instructed its field offices to ensure installation of ECR machine or POS terminal at all eligible shops by January 15 following a decision of the fiscal coordination council of the finance ministry.
The revenue board by an order in 2009 made mandatory the installation of ECR machine or POS terminal at shops under 11 categories to prevent evasion of VAT collected from consumers by the shopkeepers.
The categories include hotels, restaurants, sweetmeat shops, departmental and general stores, jewelry, all shops at shopping malls in the metropolitan areas and, medium and large wholesale and retail shops across the country.
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