Court throws out appeal on EFDs
The High Court in Blantyre has thrown out an appeal to the Supreme Court by four traders who were disputing the discharging of a stay order which restrained the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) from proceeding with implementing the mandatory use of Electronic Fiscal Devices (EFDs).
The traders made the appeal application after the court’s ruling on July 29 2014 allowed MRA to proceed with the EFD implementation.
However, in his ruling on the appeal on August 8, Justice Michael Tembo said the court was convinced that implementation of EFDs is phased out and that all businesses will be covered.
“On the whole circumstances of this case, this court is not convinced that the applicants’ business will be killed due to the introduction of the Electronic Fiscal Devices for VAT [value added tax] by the respondent [MRA]. Consequently, the application for stay is declined,” reads part of Justice Tembo’s judgement.
The latest development means mandatory use of EFDs is in effect and, therefore, all VAT operators in the country who have procured and installed EFDs must start issuing fiscal receipts or invoices with immediate effect.
Meanwhile, MRA commissioner general Raphael Kamoto is reminding the business community that with effect from July 1 2014, it is mandatory for all VAT operators who issue manual cash sales or invoices to use electronic tax register (ETR) and issue fiscal receipts or invoices.
“These are VAT operators who are in phase one of the EFDs implementation. The VAT operators in phase one are also being reminded that failure to issue fiscal receipts or invoices is an offence under the VAT Act and EFD Regulations 2014,” said Kamoto.
