The Central Electronic System of Payment (CESOP) is used to combat VAT fraud by helping to monitor and trace payments, along with identifying and controlling any suspicious or illegal activities. It captures all payments made to a taxpayer in a central, real-time database, allowing them to be monitored across borders. This helps identify the source of any fraudulent activity more quickly, before losses are incurred. It also helps to identify discrepancies between payments received and goods and services supplied, as well as discrepancies between the declared VAT rate and the effective rate charged. Additionally, it can help identify different VAT schemes which are being used to illegally reduce tax liabilities.