As part of the ongoing efforts to recover taxes that have been lost over the years, Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA), yesterday, cracked the whip on several night spots operating within the City of Kigali, closing some of them.

The crackdown is aimed at enforcing the use of electronic billing machines (EBMs).

The revenue body had listed seven of these hangouts, which had earlier been fined for not using the EBMs, and were temporarily closed after they failed to pay the fine, while others continued their operations without using the machines.

EBMs were introduced by RRA to facilitate the monitoring of business operations, which would help in the auditing of business entities in terms of taxes to be paid vis-a-vis the operations made.

Yesterday morning, Rosty Club based in Kimironko, Glass Club in Remera and K-Club in Nyarutarama were temporarily closed, but were later allowed to resume operations after agreeing with RRA on the way forward.

Speaking to the media after his club reopened, John Habimana, the proprietor of Rosty Club, said the nature of the business they do makes the use of EBMs difficult.

"In a club setting, there are many people, so for one to serve them satisfactorily, you have to be as swift as possible and this is very hard when you have to print out a bill for every buyer. I am supposed to pay Rwf5m in fines, but RRA should hear us out because of the unique nature of our business,” said Habimana.

The same concern was echoed by managers at K Club and Glass Club, saying adhering to using the EBMs would slacken their services.

However, William Nizeyimana, the head of taxpayers’ accountant management division at RRA, said there were other ways of making the system work without necessarily exonerating the hangouts from using the machines.

"The issues of night spots have to be solved internally through strategies like increasing workers to make sure many people are served simultaneously without compromising the use of EBMs. We are happy that some are compliant. Closing a business is normally our last resort because it is not in our interest,” he said.

Use of EBMs is compulsory for all businesses registered for VAT (value added tax) and, so far, according to Niezeyomana, more than 8,000 taxpayers use EBMs.

He said the devises are primarily important for businesses because they help in storing data, which helps proprietors to monitor the business operations much easier.

The measures are part of a broader crackdown by the taxman to recover Rwf62 billion in tax arrears from over 4,000 businesses across the country.

Rwanda Revenue Authority has a target of collecting Rwf900 billion this fiscal year.

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