The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has made it mandatory for all VAT-eligible hotels and restaurants on highways to install Electronic Fiscal Devices (EFDs) or Sales Data Controller (SDC) machines to ensure proper VAT collection.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the NBR siad that many highway establishments continue to operate without issuing electronic VAT invoices, leading to revenue losses.

It also mentioned that some restaurant owners collect VAT from customers but fail to deposit it properly, prompting the enforcement of the new measure.

To collect VAT properly, the NBR chairman recently issued instructions to mandatorily install EFD or SDC machines at all hotels and restaurants located on highways.

In this regard, the letter issued by the VAT Implementation Division of the NBR has directed all field-level commissioners to install EFD or SDC machines at all highway hotels and restaurants.

Moreover, the division instructed the officials to monitor daily transactions regularly and collect the appropriate VAT amount.

According to the NBR statement, Genex IT has been working with the NBR for the past few years to install EFD machines and enter all transaction information into the IVAS system through its overall management.

The current government is taking various positive steps to keep the country’s economy moving. As part of this, the NBR has issued strict instructions at the field level to identify new taxpayers for revenue collection, change the VAT rate, and prevent revenue evasion.

The NBR has instructed field-level officers to maintain a service-oriented attitude with taxpayers when collecting legal revenue.

Meanwhile, the NBR urged the consumers to accept electronic invoices or receipts while dining at all restaurants on the highway, adding that if the VAT invoice is not received, the VAT paid by the consumers will not be deposited in the government coffers.

The statement added that, to encourage VAT payment, the NBR will award hundreds of prizes to the winning VAT payers through a monthly lottery from among the EFD machine-generated VAT receipts.

According to the Hotel and Restaurant Survey 2021 by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), there are currently 436,274 hotels and restaurants across the country. About 1200-1500 of them are highway restaurants.

Bangladesh Restaurant Owners Association general secretary Imran Hassan said they welcome the mandatory installation of EFD and SDC machines.

‘However, we have always urged the government to make it mandatory for all businesses and all types of restaurants,’ he said.

He also said that if highway restaurants are required to install EFD or SDC machines while nearby establishments are exempt, it could lead to unfair competition.

The NBR officially announced the full implementation of the EFD through Genex Infosys in August of 2024. The target was to install 60,000 units annually, 3 lakh in five years. However, according to the NBR website, so far, only 16,860 units installed the device.