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The Tax Programme of the OECD Korea Policy Centre (KPC), in collaboration with the OECD and the Asian Development Bank(ADB) hosted a workshop on International Survey on Revenue Administration(ISORA) at the President Hotel in Seoul, Korea from 4 July to 6 August 2023. The workshop took a format of a hybrid (offline and simultaneous online workshop via Zoom). It focused on the International Survey on Revenue Administration (ISORA). It was the first in-person workshop since the COVID-19 pandemic and was attended by 40 tax officials(on-site) from more than 18 non-OECD countries in the Asia-Pacific region including countries such as including Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Oliver Petzold and Vegard Holmedahl from the OECD, and Daisuke Miura, Annette Chooi and Saturnina Balaguer from ADB participated in as speakers.

On the first day, Mr. Vegard Holmedahl introduced on a history and features of ISORA data. He explained that ISORA was launched in 2016 and 135 participated, but for ISORA 2022, the number of participants has increased to 165. He explained that there is an administrative committee and a technical team composed of the officials from the collaborating organisations and AD. He outlined the advantages of ISORA that it provides the data needed by the five orgarnisations (CIAT, ADB, IMF, IOTA, and OECD) and their member countries. He highlighted that the data is open to other orgarnisations as well. He said ISORA allows comparable analysis among countries and time periods, which allow tax administrators in each country to discuss the establishment of efficient systems. He then mentioned the plan for implementation of 2023 ISORA and how we would approach to ISORA through this workshop.

Mr. Daisuke Miura then gave an update on the organisation’s engagement with ISORA. He explained that ADB joined ISORA in 2018. He said that ADB uses ISORA to compare and analyse data on economies in the Asia-Pacific region and to produce publication, ‘A comparative analysis of Tax administration in Asia and Pacific’. He explained that ISORA is the most comprehensive data-set available. The first edition of the publication was published in 2014, and it describes itself as observing the environment, revenue collection status and performance of tax organizations, highlighting the status of best practices, current policy trends, and performance management indicators and methods.

Next, Ms Annette Chooi introduced ISORA’s portal, RA-FIT (https://data.rafit.org/), its function and explained how it can be utilised. They introduced the structure of the portal and stated that data is available by jurisdiction and by topic. Also, they explained that it is possible to build tables with the information and extract it in the form of an excel file.

On Day 2 and Day3, participants had the opportunity to use the portal to actually utilise ISROA data. They were able to use the data to analyse their own topics, discuss how to use ISORA data, and have presentations from country representatives that have implemented ISORA with its key features.

On Day 2, Khif Faiz Mohamad from Malaysia, shared that he uses ISORA to conduct detailed research on new tax resources, review, identify and collect tax and non-tax data and information, and prepare comparative studies and data analysis.

On Day 3, the Maldives presented on how they applied and utilized ISORA. She explained that prior to participating in ISORA, there was limited information available to the Revenue Department. Since implementing ISORA, they have been conducting monthly performance assessments to fill out ISORA questionnaires and understand the performance of each department. She added that they use ISORA to create action plans and build strategy. They identify key performance indicators and then set tasks that need to be done on a regular basis based on the plan they have created. She explained that utilizing ISORA internally has helped them strengthen their data operations and management, and has helped them strengthen their performance operations and data systems.

During the three-day event participants enthusiastically asked questions of the speakers and participated in discussions and presentations. For in-depth discussions, they were divided into groups, and each team was assigned one expert to facilitate and manage the discussions. The event allowed participants to not only learn the concepts and contents of ISORA, but also to consolidate their knowledge through practical applications. In addition, by introducing application cases, participants were able to acquire knowledge that would be of practical use in their home countries.