Business communities have been assured that the upcoming third phase of the VAT Monitoring System will be rolled out smoothly and carefully managed to minimize disruption.

Concerns were, however, raised during a post-budget forum in Nadi regarding the challenges small and medium-sized enterprises experienced during previous VMS phases.

Many business owners specifically expressed anxiety over the high costs incurred in upgrading their point-of-sale systems to comply with the platform.

Fiji Revenue and Customs Services Chief Executive Udit Singh. [File Photo]

Fiji Revenue and Customs Services Chief Executive Udit Singh says the third phase of VMS will be implemented keeping in mind the SMEs.

“We had the same issue when we actually rolled VMS out. And so this is phase three, and we will work with the business community to try and make sure that the impact is as effortless as possible.”

Singh also says that FRCS is developing affordable solutions to reduce the cost of doing business.

“So what we’re going to do in the next six months or so is to try and activate a low-cost point of sale system. We’ve actually got a free point of sale system that’s available to small businesses now.”

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Professor Biman Prasad, also assures of a seamless rollout.

When we came into government, we had paused or stopped the implementation of the second phase of the VMS, and partly because we heard and listened to the challenges that businesses had. I am told by FRCS that this time, this rollout would be kind of seamless. And if there are challenges, then I think FRCS is well equipped to deal with them.

Professor Prasad also clarifies that while the VAT threshold remains unchanged, the VMS threshold has been reduced to bring more businesses into the digital compliance net.

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