Manama, The National Bureau for Revenue (NBR) reaffirmed its continuous commitment to enhancing the level of business compliance within the local markets and ensuring adherence to all regulations and legislation for the effective implementation of VAT and Excise including the Digital Stamps Scheme. The NBR conducted 343 inspection visits within the local markets across different governorates in the kingdom during the first quarter of 2024. These inspections aimed at monitoring the market and providing high levels of protection for customer rights and combating VAT and Excise evasion, along with spreading awareness of the rightful ways of implementation. The NBR has confirmed that effective oversight of the local market has resulted in reporting 36 VAT violations, in which administrative fines have been imposed in accordance with the VAT Law. The reported violations were related to the failure to comply with the conditions for issuing VAT invoices, failure to show prices inclusive of VAT, failure to display a VAT certificate in a visible location. The NBR identified several violations that may be considered suspicions of VAT or Excise evasion, in which legal actions will be taken 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 emphasised that the cooperation of businesses and consumers is integral to the success of the ongoing inspection campaigns to achieve the highest compliance standards, the NBR also urges all concerned parties to report any violations or evasions of the VAT or Excise law by contacting the NBR call center at 80008001 available 24 hours, 7 days a week, or through the National Suggestions and Complaints System (Tawasul), or by email through vat@nbr.gov.bh f or VAT related queries, and to ds@nbr.gov.bh for the Digital Stamps Scheme queries. Source: Bahrain News Agency