The importance of an efficient revenue collection system to governments cannot be over emphasized, because it is the means by which funding of their bills and developmental programmes is obtained.
Greater amounts of revenue earned means more funds are available for building roads, schools, hospitals and spending on other social programmes.
However, with an inefficient revenue collection system, less revenue will be collected and there will also be less equity and accountability.
As far back as 1776, Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations laid out some criteria for judging revenue systems. He said that a high-quality revenue system should have equity, explicitness, simplicity of compliance and economy of administration. These recommendations remain useful, but their applicability to today’s situations requires some re-evaluation.
The elements of a high-quality state revenue system are complementary rather than contradictory. Since state revenue systems have developed gradually and tax policy is used to address multiple objectives, state revenue systems are likely to include inconsistencies.
However, a clear sense of the objectives of a revenue system can help to minimise these inconsistencies.
In our country we have had a very inefficient revenue collection system in the past, but today we can safely say that there has been a marked improvement, albeit there is much more to do to bring it to the desired level. But the facts irrefutably show that in recent years the system has seen continuous improvement and from all indications will continue  the same trend.
Only recently, Commissioner-General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Kurshid Sattaur, reported that his agency has amply surpassed its 2011 collection target of $104B, and ascribed this achievement to improved and modernised systems implemented by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA)together with a stable economy.
The Commissioner-General is correct because the private sector also showed improvement in  business and also conceded that a major contributory factor to this achievement has been the fact that Guyana’s economy has been sound and stable.
Despite many challenges, this has not been the only year that revenue collection has improved. In fact, this has been the trend over the last five years as the revenue collected in 2007 was in excess of $77B; in 2008, it was $79B; and in 2009, it surpassed $89B.
According to Mr. Sattaur,  numerous improved and efficient measures that were put into operation by the agency were also responsible for this success. “Last year (2011) also saw some challenges at the Licence Revenue Office, which the agency was able to overcome during the sale of motor vehicle licences … after implementing changes,” the Commissioner General noted.
The new system is much more efficient and secure, making it impossible for someone to compromise or falsify a motor vehicle licence, he said.
The Commissioner-General and his staff must be given full credit for a job well done, as there seems to be a trend developing in Guyana where, from certain quarters, there are only criticisms and fault-finding, with the same critics becoming deafeningly silent when positives happen.
On this note it would be interesting to see what would be the response from those quarters.
However, one area of revenue collection which needs greater attention is the widening of the tax net, because there are too many tax evaders, especially from the wealthier class, who are robbing our treasury of huge sums.
If these funds are collected it could result in much more development and a better life for our people. Therefore, the GRA should examine and explore new and innovative means to ensure that the state is not deprived of revenue which is due to it.