Shopowners today stressed the need for collecting value-added tax (VAT) at source until the government completes installing cash register machines in all kinds of stores.

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) could only install 3,096 electronic fiscal devices (EFDs) across the country, which has created an imbalance in earnings of shopowners, they said.

The shopkeepers who have installed EFDs are getting lower number of customers and earning less compared to the ones that have no cash register machine at all, they said.

Some shops with no cash register machine are avoiding the tax whereas the honest businesses are making less profit despite complying with the government's rule of having EFDs, the shopowners said.

"So, the NBR can now go for collecting VAT at source to save the compliant shopowners from paying extra taxes."

The leaders of Bangladesh Shop Owners' Association made the comments and placed their demands at a press conference at the National Press Club in Dhaka.