Manama: The National Bureau for Revenue (NBR) conducted 1216 inspection visits within the local markets across the governorates of the Kingdom of Bahrain during 2025. This initiative is part of NBR's ongoing commitment to enhancing business compliance and ensuring adherence to regulations for the effective implementation of VAT and Excise.
According to Bahrain News Agency, the inspections covered sectors including construction, manufacturing, real estate, retail, plumbing, heat and air-conditioning installation, travel agencies, auto repair, manpower supply, and jewelry trading, among others. This effort underscores the NBR's dedication to monitoring the market, protecting consumer rights, combating VAT and Excise evasion, and promoting awareness of proper implementation practices. These initiatives resulted in a compliance rate of 86.5% across local markets in 2025, showcasing the positive impact of NBR's oversight and awareness programs.
The NBR reported 145 VAT violations, with administrative fines imposed as per the Law. Common violations involved non-compliance with VAT invoice issuance conditions, failure to display VAT-inclusive prices, not showing a VAT certificate visibly, failing to issue VAT invoices, and issuing VAT invoices for non-VATable goods or services.
In its efforts to ensure proper excise implementation, the NBR identified 19 violations related to acquiring excise goods with unpaid dues and supplying excise goods without a valid digital stamp, resulting in administrative fines.
The NBR's intensified oversight also uncovered suspicious cases of VAT and Excise evasion, leading to legal actions against violators. Those proven to have committed evasion crimes face penalties, including imprisonment for up to five years and fines up to three times the amount of VAT due, or imprisonment for one year and fines double the evaded excise.