The Malawi Revenue Authority MRA has introduced a new innovation; –
Electronic Fiscal Device-EFD which is meant to bring efficiency in its
Value added Tax-VAT collections.
Of-late, some businesses have been remitting incorrect amount of tax
thereby giving themselves an unfair advantage over those, which
honestly do.
In an interview Commissioner General for MRA John Biziwick disclosed
that the EFD’s are improved versions of electronic cash registers that
will record all sales transactions and transmit the data to the MRA
server due to its connectivity.
“We are currently not following up the certified VAT operators, that
is to say we do not know whether operators are paying real tax or not,
but with the innovation, we will be able to track operators that they
are not paying as required.
“Another good thing is that EFD’s will alert us if the operator is not
using, therefore we advice the business community especially shop
owners to comply by buying the gadget and switch it off so that it
will monitor all transactions otherwise the law gives powers to drag
the operatos to court for incompliance.” Biziwick said.
According to Biziwick, all VAT operators must get the device by today
as the implementation’s first phase starts threatening that any
incompliance will attract 100 000 kwacha fine or five years
imprisonment