IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/2019-104.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Case Studies in Tax Revenue Mobilization in Low-Income Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Mr. Bernardin Akitoby
  • Mr. Jiro Honda
  • Hiroaki Miyamoto
  • Keyra Primus
  • Mouhamadou Sy

Abstract

How can Low-Income Countries (LICs) enhance tax revenue collection to finance their vast development needs? We address this question by analyzing seven tax reform experiences in LICs (Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Maldives, Mauritania, Rwanda, Senegal, and Uganda). Three lessons stand out, although reforms must be tailored to individual circumstances: (i) Tax reforms require first and foremost political commitment and buy-in from key stakeholders; (ii) Countries that pursue both revenue administration and tax policy reforms tend to see much larger and persistent gains; and (iii) A successful strategy often starts with fiscal reform measures with immediate effect to build momentum. These can include: simplifying the tax system; curbing exemptions; reforming indirect taxes on goods and services (e.g., excises); and better managing compliance risks through strengthening taxpayer segmentation (often beginning with strengthening the Large Taxpayers Office). A comprehensive reform strategy (e.g., a medium-term revenue strategy) can help to properly sequence reform measures and facilitate their implementation.

Suggested Citation

  • Mr. Bernardin Akitoby & Mr. Jiro Honda & Hiroaki Miyamoto & Keyra Primus & Mouhamadou Sy, 2019. "Case Studies in Tax Revenue Mobilization in Low-Income Countries," IMF Working Papers 2019/104, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2019/104
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=46719
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mario MANSOUR & Grégoire ROTA-GRAZIOSI, 2013. "Tax coordination, tax competition, and revenue mobilization in the west african economic and monetary union," Working Papers P81, FERDI.
    2. Ernesto Crivelli & Mr. Sanjeev Gupta, 2014. "Does conditionality in IMF-supported programs promote revenue reform?," IMF Working Papers 2014/206, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Ivanyna, Maksym & von Haldenwang, Christian, 2012. "A comparative view on the tax performance of developing countries: Regional patterns, non-tax revenue and governance," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 6, pages 1-44.
    4. Keen, Michael & Lockwood, Ben, 2010. "The value added tax: Its causes and consequences," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 138-151, July.
    5. Mario Mansour, 2015. "Tax Policy in MENA Countries: Looking Back and Forward," IMF Working Papers 2015/098, International Monetary Fund.
    6. Mr. David Kloeden, 2011. "Revenue Administration Reforms in anglophone Africa Since the Early 1990's," IMF Working Papers 2011/162, International Monetary Fund.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Olusegun Ayodele Akanbi, 2019. "State Institutions and Tax Capacity: An Empirical Investigation of Causality," IMF Working Papers 2019/177, International Monetary Fund.
    2. Miguel Niño-Zarazúa & Francesca Scaturro & Vanesa Jordá & Finn Tarp, 2023. "Income Inequality and Redistribution in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 32(Supplemen), pages 296-319.
    3. Mr. Bernardin Akitoby & Ms. Anja Baum & Clay Hackney & Olamide Harrison & Keyra Primus & Ms. Veronique Salins, 2018. "Tax Revenue Mobilization Episodes in Emerging Markets and Low-Income Countries: Lessons from a New Dataset," IMF Working Papers 2018/234, International Monetary Fund.
    4. Annalena Oppel & Kyle McNabb & Daniel Chachu, 2022. "The dynamics of domestic revenue mobilization across four decades," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2022-1, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mr. Bernardin Akitoby & Ms. Anja Baum & Clay Hackney & Olamide Harrison & Keyra Primus & Ms. Veronique Salins, 2018. "Tax Revenue Mobilization Episodes in Emerging Markets and Low-Income Countries: Lessons from a New Dataset," IMF Working Papers 2018/234, International Monetary Fund.
    2. Kodjo Adandohoin & Vigninou Gammadigbe, 2022. "The revenue efficiency consequences of the announcement of a tax transition reform: The case of WAEMU countries," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 34(S1), pages 195-218, July.
    3. Luisito Bertinelli & Arnaud Bourgain, 2016. "Tax Mobilization in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Impact of Tax and Business Law Reforms," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 36(3), pages 1805-1810.
    4. Christian Ebeke & M Mansour & Grégoire Rota-Graziosi, 2016. "The Power to Tax in Sub-Saharan Africa: LTUs, VATs, and SARAs," Working Papers halshs-01332049, HAL.
    5. Mattéo Godin & Romain Houssa & Kelbesa Megersa, 2017. "The Performance of VAT in DGD-partner countries," BeFinD Working Papers 0116, University of Namur, Department of Economics.
    6. Serhan Cevik & Jan Gottschalk & Eric Hutton & Laura Jaramillo & Pooja Karnane & Mousse Sow, 2019. "Structural transformation and tax efficiency," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 341-379, December.
    7. Hassan, Mirza & Prichard, Wilson, 2016. "The Political Economy of Domestic Tax Reform in Bangladesh: Political Settlements, Informal Institutions and the Negotiation of Reform," Working Papers 13681, Institute of Development Studies, International Centre for Tax and Development.
    8. Combey, Adama, 2020. "Evaluation De L’Ecart De Tva Au Togo [Evaluation Of The Vat Gap In Togo]," MPRA Paper 101478, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Mr. Gilles Montagnat-Rentier & Mr. Gilles Parent, 2012. "Customs Administration Reform and Modernization in Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, 1995–2010," IMF Working Papers 2012/259, International Monetary Fund.
    10. Guimarães, Bernardo de Vasconcellos & Ladeira, Carlos Eduardo de Almeida, 2015. "The determinants of IMF fiscal conditionalities: economics or politics?," Textos para discussão 391, FGV EESP - Escola de Economia de São Paulo, Fundação Getulio Vargas (Brazil).
    11. Kowsar Yousefi & Mohammad Vesal, 2023. "The Double Dividend of a Joint Tariff and VAT Reform: Evidence from Iran," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 37(2), pages 331-349.
    12. Michael Keen, 2007. "VAT attacks!," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 14(4), pages 365-381, August.
    13. Chen, Shawn Xiaoguang, 2017. "The effect of a fiscal squeeze on tax enforcement: Evidence from a natural experiment in China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 62-76.
    14. Christian EBEKE, 2010. "Remittances, Value Added Tax and Tax Revenue in Developing Countries," Working Papers 201030, CERDI.
    15. Bird, Richard, 2010. "Taxation and Development," World Bank - Economic Premise, The World Bank, issue 34, pages 1-5, September.
    16. Crivelli, Ernesto, 2013. "Fiscal impact of privatization revisited: The role of tax revenues in transition economies," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 217-232.
    17. Abhay Pant, 2016. "The Revenue Impact of VAT in Madhya Pradesh: Empirical Evidence from India," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 8(5), pages 182-189, May.
    18. Carolina Bloch & Charlotte Bilo & Imane Helmy & Rafael Guerreiro Osorio & Fábio Veras Soares, 2019. "Fiscal space for child-sensitive social protection in the MENA region," Research Report 36, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    19. Timothy Besley & Torsten Persson, 2011. "Pillars of Prosperity: The Political Economics of Development Clusters," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9624.
    20. Haibo Feng & Sheng Liu & Fei Xu, 2019. "China's VAT Reform and Its Effects on Enterprises' Tax Burden and Innovation," Working Papers hal-04066831, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2019/104. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Akshay Modi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imfffus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.