This Wednesday, RRA closed eight business stores whose owners indulge in misuse of Electronic Billing Machines used to manage VAT through undervaluation of merchandise and non-issuance of electronic invoices. This is second time in row the tax body is closing doors of businesses that abuse the use of EBM in Kigali. VAT currently stands at 18% and is paid by the consumer. It is collected by traders and remitted to government.   Statistics from EBM project indicate that 22751 taxpayers use electronic billion machines; 19,508 of them use EBM version one while 3,243 use the upgraded version of EBM. Mr. Butera Jean Marie Vianney, the EBM Field Operations Manager at RRA says about 70% of businesses whose doors were closed had been caught more than twice defrauding the tax authority through undervaluation. “Undervaluation is the common method traders use to cheat on VAT. In this case say a trader sells 25 kgs of Kabuye sugar at Rwf, 18, 000, but when invoicing for VAT they reduce the price to Rwf, 16, 000. The motivation here is to maximize margins by adding the 18% of government tax to the normal profit. In other cases, EBM invoices are not issued at all,” Mr. Butera explains. Closure of business premises is an additional penalty to financial fines that put business of the offender at a disadvantage, yet it can be avoided by adhering to tax laws. Also, the vice affects law abiding businesses negatively as it kills fair competition.  The VAT law says any person required to use electronic billing machine who sells goods or services without issuing an electronic invoice is liable to an administrative fine of ten times the value of the evaded value added tax. And, in case a person repeats the fault, he / she is liable to an administrative fine of twenty times the value of the evaded VAT. Mr. Butera urges traders to desist from manipulating tax laws and calls on consumers to verify tax invoices every time they shop goods or consume services to ensure their tax is remitted to government to finance public goods. EBM is in use in Rwanda since 2013 and has improved performance of VAT from Rwf110.5bn in 2013 to Rwf 352.0bn in 2017. Ends-