Revenue Board to intensify surveillance as issuing invoice drops

Staff Reporter :
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) collected Tk 32.29 crore in November this year, up 6 per cent from 30.40 crore in October this year through value-added tax (VAT) machines installed in various retail outlets in Dhaka and Chattogram.
The earnings came through 8,399 Electronic Fiscal Devices (EFDs) and Sales Data Controllers (SDCs) installed in five commissionerates of VAT in the districts.
Meanwhile, the issuing invoice through the devices has declined by 1 per cent to 31.71 lakh while it was 31.89 lakh in October this year.
NBR revealed the data at the Electronic Fiscal Device Management System (EFDMS) lottery programme held at the conference room of its headquarters in the capital on Monday.
NBR member on VAT implementation and IT Moinul Khan said that “The overall performance of the commissionarates is not satisfactory even though the revenue collection through EFDs increased by a little bit.”
Khan urged the field officials to enhance the monitoring over the retail sectors so that the VAT evasion is not happening. At the same time, the officials have to increase close surveillances over the potential sector. He stressed that “Any kind of laxness is not desirable from the officials.”
“The overall VAT collection increased by a huge through the EFDs operation, assuming that the process is very much effective,” Khan also added.
NBR held a draw of its 23rd lottery of the EFD-generated invoices against purchases made by consumers throughout November. The first and second winners, who were not named, received Tk 1 lakh and Tk 50,000, respectively, as prize money. Besides, five consumers were awarded Tk 25,000 five person as the third prize, while 94 others won the fourth prize worth Tk 10,000 each.
The lottery draw is held every month based on the previous month’s challans. NBR Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem inaugurated the EFDMS on August 25, 2019. Later, on February 5, 2020, the revenue board started the lottery system for the first time to motivate customers to provide VAT through EFD machines.