Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority (FRCA) will soon monitor purchases made at supermarkets and hardware stores in real time.

This will be made possible with the implementation of a gadget in cash registers, which will in real time inform FRCA of any purchase made. Acting General Manager Taxation Fazrul Rahman revealed this to the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament yesterday.

Mr Rahman said the installation of the gadgets was expected to be made by the end of the year.

He said that the movement of the $2.8 billion in Fiji’s economy had not been formally monitored.

“This is black economy and Government is losing out $716 million in taxes,” he said.

He said this system would allow them to monitor where monies were moving and would be able to clamp down on tax evasion.

Mr Rahman said the same gadgets were also used in countries like Belgium and Japan.

“FRCA is going to effectively put a particular gadget that is going to prescribe cash register that if somebody comes to the store buy stuff; the data gets entered and we will is receive the data on time,” Mr Rahman said.

He said it would also assist them on how the business was managed.

“So if someone wants to take away that gadget; the cash register machine will not work and it will not print the receipts,” Mr Rahman said.

He said business between the suppliers and manufacturers would be monitored through the new system.

He said the Authority’s acting chief executive officer Visvanath Das was currently in Germany studying how the new system works.

Edited by Rusiate Mataika

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