Government controls have begun on a national scale to ensure that shops are issuing receipts to customers. Three out of every 10 businesses inspected since 1 January 2007 are not complying with this requirement.

Some 15,000 businesses have been checked for receipts in the Veneto, Sicily, Puglia, Campania and Trentino Alto Adige regions, which has resulted in over 4,000 fines being issued so far.

The highest number of offenders was found to be in Campania (42 per cent of all businesses in the region checked) and in Sicily (31 per cent).

According to the new Finanziaria budget if a business is caught not issuing receipts three times the business is forced to close for a minimum of three days.