Chief Executive Visvanath Das

The Fiji Revenue and Customs Service has $52.3m fiscalised receipts in its database with an estimated sales record of $1.3b.

This follows the implementation of the Electronic Fiscal Device and Regulation in 2017.

Chief Executive Visvanath Das, says they also recorded $100m in gross VAT and $3.5m in plastic bag levy through the VAT monitoring system.

Das says the compliance level for phase one which includes supermarkets and pharmacies and phase two which consists of law firms, medical centers, travel agencies, accounting firms, and hardware companies still remains a challenge.

He says the compliance level currently stands at 82 percent as they are still liaising and assisting businesses to fully comply with the regulation.

Das adds to ensure full and effective compliance, they have issued numerous infringement notices to companies due to non-compliance.

He reveals that the majority of these non-compliant companies never made any attempts to install the VMS or contact them for assistance.

Das stresses that the objective of this system is not only to have efficient and reliable software to encourage voluntary compliance but at the same time collect the revenue due to the government.