Raising Revenue Right : A Roadmap for Domestic Resource Mobilization - Chapter 9 : Policy Guidance

Overview & Synopsis

This chapter provides a practical guide for policy makers and civil society organizations to apply the report’s fiscal frontier framework and tailor tax reforms to their country’s specific circumstances. Emphasizing that there is no universal path to a stronger tax system, it introduces a two-step diagnostic approach for identifying feasible and effective reforms. First, countries assess their structural fundamentals, including economic conditions, administrative capacity, and political and institutional factors, to determine which reforms are practical. Second, they benchmark the performance of their tax system against peer countries with similar characteristics to identify priority gaps in revenue generation, efficiency, fairness, and compliance. Based on this assessment, the chapter outlines reform priorities across the overall tax system as well as income, consumption, and property taxation. It also highlights the role of technology, transparency, and trust in strengthening tax administration and improving tax system performance, providing a roadmap for prioritizing and sequencing reforms that are both achievable and impactful.