Domestic resource mobilization and international tax cooperation are now more important than ever for developing member countries (DMCs) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) with their heightened debt and shrinking tax revenues during the COVID-19 pandemic, and with their commitment to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Even before the pandemic, most of our DMCs recorded relatively weak revenue performance and tax yields that were rather unstable and unpredictable, with many having a tax-to-gross domestic product ratio below the 15 percent benchmark, widely considered by international bodies to be the minimum level required for sustainable development and inclusive growth. While the role of external finance plays a key role in filling the fiscal gaps of those DMCs, domestic resource mobilization, as SDG Goal 17, is an indispensable foundation, for achieving all the other SDGs and supporting a green recovery and robust economic growth. Therefore, governments in Asia and the Pacific need to improve their revenue efforts through reforms in tax administration and new ways of mobilizing revenue. Such reform initiatives would include, among others, making income tax more progressive to address income inequality, introducing carbon tax and other environmental taxation, enhancing international tax cooperation, and modernizing tax administration with digital technologies to improve tax compliance.

In this context, tax administration reform through digital transformation is a key component to improving revenue authorities’ capacity of securing government revenues. Deploying digital technology can help tax administration reduce transaction costs and enhance transparency, leading to improved taxpayers’ compliance.

However, introducing and implementing new reform initiatives will require sustained strategic dialogues across various stakeholders, knowledge sharing, and, more importantly, capacity building through regional workshops involving government officials from fiscal authorities and relevant experts.

This event is funded by the Republic of Korea e-Asia and Knowledge Partnership Fund.