Business and shop owners across the country have revived their protest against the rollout of Electronic Invoicing System (EIS) by the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) and plan an indefinite shut down tomorrow.
MRA is introducing the EIS to replace Electronic Fiscal Devices (EFDs). The public tax collector argues that the new system is designed to issue electronic tax invoices, manage stock records and transmit transaction data to MRA in real time.
But speaking during a press briefing in Mzuzu yesterday, Northern Region Business Association chairperson Chembe Kasambara said the new system is detrimental to business growth as it overburdens them on taxes.
He said they had raised similar issues when they held protests in January, and were expecting responses from MRA, but they are yet to get feedback.
“Business people are not running away from this system because when we import the things, everything is recorded at the border, and MRA does physical inspection when offloading, and any time they do inspections and audits in shops,” said Kasambara.
Reading the petition, the association’s deputy publicity secretary Benard Kaonga said they are not fighting the government, but survival of businesses and livelihoods.
“EFDs are working very well, that is why MRA is able to best its targets on collecting the taxes. This is also because we are able to remit the taxes honestly,” he said.
MRA spokesperson Wilma Chalulu was yet to respond to The Nation questionnaire by press time yesterday, but she is on record as having assured the public that the EIS will not increase the burden on traders.
In an earlier explanation, she said the new system is an improvement in the tax collection system to replace EFDs introduced in 2014.
Said Chalulu: “The world is moving on. Technology has moved on and we would like to make taxpayers’ compliance easier. The Electronic Invoicing System is merely a system that is technologically more advanced.
“The cost of the gadgets is even much lower than the EFDs, in terms of the system it can be accessed online and in real time,” she said.
In their petition presented to MRA in January, the traders feared the requirement to declare the value of goods in stock for EIS tracking.
The rollout of the system was initially scheduled from February 1 to May 1 following concerns by traders that the system is punitive and will cripple their businesses.
