Lebanon: Technical Assistance Report-Tax and Customs Administration: An Urgent Need for Intervention

International Monetary Fund

No 2023/383, IMF Staff Country Reports from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: This Technical Assistance Report on Lebanon focuses on tax and customs administration’s an urgent need for intervention. Recognizing a downward trajectory, national dialogue on the future of Lebanon’s tax and customs administrations is urgently needed. Inaction and underinvestment to deal with these challenges will forego substantial revenues and prolong the effects of the crisis. Options to help reverse the decline in revenue administration exist, and structural mechanisms for financing reform and modernization need to be explored. An immediate intervention is required to stabilize information technology operations and ensure the continuity of the value added tax and Revenue Directorates’ core operations. Having addressed immediate needs, ‘quick wins’ in tax administration should be pursued while consensus on more substantive reforms is achieved. The report recommends that overreach of the Higher Customs Council beyond administrative policy into operations should cease while work continues to introduce a new organizational structure. The consequence is an inability to readily implement change or effectively manage critical operations.

Keywords: Tax Administration; Customs Administration; Reform; Modernization; Information Technology; IMF CD project support; CD project; staff remuneration; IMF CD activity; IT staff; IMF Middle East; IMF Economist; Tax administration core functions; Customs administration core functions; Auditing; Value-added tax; Global (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42
Date: 2023-12-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-acc and nep-ara
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=542002 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:imf:imfscr:2023/383

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/pubs/ord_info.htm

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IMF Staff Country Reports from International Monetary Fund International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC USA. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Akshay Modi ().