Manama : The National Bureau for Revenue (NBR) conducted 2115 inspection visits within the local markets of the governorates of the Kingdom of Bahrain during 2023 as part of the continuous oversight efforts to protect consumers’ rights and enhance control over commercial establishments.
Inspection was conducted over various sectors, such as, education, construction, manufacturing, real estate, retail, plumbing, heat and air-conditioning installation, travel agencies, healthcare activities and many others.
The campaigns resulted in reporting 244 violations that required the imposition of administrative fines in accordance with the VAT & Excise Law, where most reported violations were related to the failure to comply with the conditions for issuing VAT invoices, failure to show prices inclusive of VAT, in addition to failure in displaying a VAT certificate.
As part of NBR’s ongoing oversight of the local market and efforts to combat excise evasion regarding the implementation of the Digital Stamp Scheme, which prohibit sales, exchange, and storage of items that do not comply with the scheme in local markets on cigarette and waterpipe tobacco “molasses” products, in addition to other excise products which entered into force during different stages in 2022 and 2023, the NBR conducted 539 inspection visits out of the total visits during the year 2023.
These visits resulted in 53 violations reported related to the Digital Stamps Scheme. These campaigns were conducted using the newest tools and digital techniques, to ensure effective implementation.
Additionally, several violations that can be considered suspicions of VAT and excise evasion were reported during these visits for which the NBR took legal actions against violators and referred those who are proven to have committed evasion crimes to the competent authorities to initiate a criminal case against them, which may be punishable by imprisonment for five years and a fine equivalent to three times the amount of VAT due or by imprisonment for one year and a fine equivalent to double the evaded excise according to the Excise law.
The NBR also confirmed the continuation of inspection campaigns aiming to urge all businesses registered with the NBR to adhere to the application of legislation to prevent violations and to ensure the success of the various stages of implementation.
For inquiries related to VAT and excise or to report any violations, the NBR call centre can be reached at 80008001 available 24 hours, 7 days a week, or through the National Suggestions & Complaints System (Tawasul), vat@nbr.gov.bh for VAT related queries and ds@nbr.gov.bh for Digital Stamps Scheme queries.