The collection of retail VAT will speed up if electronic fiscal devices (EFDs) can be installed across the country through outsourcing, said Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem, chairman of the National Board of Revenue (NBR).

The NBR chairman made the remarks at the 12th draw of the lottery on the EFD invoices in the NBR conference room today. An EFD is a device that has fiscal memory, capacity to generate or produce tax invoices and other reports.

"In my view, the amount of retail VAT can be more than one-third of our total VAT collection. We have shortcomings in this area. For this, we need more workforce to collect retail VAT as it is not possible to cover it with the current manpower," he said.

"So, we are going to collect retail VAT in the outsourcing process and we have already called for tenders to this end," Muneem said adding that it is not possible for NBR to collect the retail VAT by installing millions of machines across the country.

If the process can be implemented properly, a new dimension will be added to the VAT collection, he also said.

NBR sources said only 3,478 EFDs have been installed so far in Dhaka and Chattogram.