EFD mandatory for hotels and restaurants on highways

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has decided to make it mandatory to install Electronic Fiscal Device (EFD), or Sales Data Controller (SDC) machines, in all VAT-eligible hotels and restaurants located on highways across the country.

On Sunday (March 2), National Board of Revenue Public Relations Officer Md. Al Amin Sheikh gave this information.

He said that conscious consumers are continuously complaining that VAT is not being properly deposited in the government treasury as electronic VAT invoices are not issued in hotels and restaurants located on highways across the country. Restaurants on highways operate 24 hours a day. Many people collect VAT but do not deposit it properly.

National Board of Revenue Public Relations Officer Md. Al Amin Sheikh said, in order to collect VAT properly at all levels in the country, the Chairman of the National Board of Revenue recently issued instructions to install EFD/SDC machines in all hotels and restaurants located on the country's highways. In that context, in a letter issued by the VAT Implementation Division of the NBR, urgent instructions have been given to all field-level commissioners to install EFD/SDC machines in all hotels and restaurants located on the country's highways, monitor daily transactions regularly, and collect the appropriate amount of VAT.

The NBR said that a company named Genex IT has been working with the National Board of Revenue 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 wheels of the country's economy moving. To this end, the NBR has issued strict instructions at the field level to identify new taxpayers and change the VAT rate for revenue collection, as well as to prevent revenue evasion. NBR field officers have also been instructed to maintain a service-oriented attitude towards taxpayers in collecting legal revenue.