A five-day meeting of the Caribbean Organisation of Tax Administrators (COTA) bean here on Monday with regional tax administrations being urged to embrace the technological and digital developments including artificial intelligence (AI) so as to improve their functions.
Addressing the COTA’s 27th General Assembly and Technical Conference, Guyana’s Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh said while the main function of tax administrations is extremely important to the economic and fiscal well-being of regional countries, it is also necessary that they embrace the new technologies that would also be beneficial to foreign investors. He said that in the case of Guyana for example, it has endeavoured over the years to deploy using current technology additional solutions, digital solutions that have allowed for an app that the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) now uses to allow for electronic filing of taxes, tax returns and electronic interaction with the Revenue Authority.
‘And we have seen an astronomical take-up of these digital solutions,’ he said, adding that it would be fair to say that recent technological developments, particularly in relation to big data, machine learning, and the tools of data science and data analytics, ‘have opened a whole new host of possibilities that were hitherto not available to us.
‘Today, we have tools available, readily available, that allow for data mining at a speed and with an efficiency and with a degree of sophistication that just a few years ago were simply not available.’
Singh said that there are few examples of areas in public administration where these tools and technologies have the potential to yield and have the potential to yield as significant benefits in tax administration.
‘ Because if you consider, for example, today the speed with which we can examine data submitted in relation to declarations, prices, volumes, declared values, and conduct very sophisticated analytics on this data with a dizzying speed in nanoseconds, the possibilities, if you will permit a little cliche, the possibilities are almost boundless, almost limitless.’
Singh said that international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) having being doing a lot of work on the possibilities offered by artificial intelligence.
The conference here is being held under the theme ‘Future-Ready CARICOM Tax Administration – Smart, Data-Driven and AI-Enabled for Sustainable Revenue,’ and Singh said the deliberations provide an opportunity for delegates ‘to get …acquainted with cutting edge thought on how information technology, artificial intelligence in particular, and AI tools can be used to transform tax administrations.
‘And I want to urge that we do so not only in Guyana, but …I want to urge our brothers and sisters from other CARICOM jurisdictions to consider carefully how these tools can be deployed for more efficient and effective tax administration.’
In his address, Singh said he has always sought to address the changing role of tax administrations across the region.
He said while the main function of these adminstrations is revenue protection and revenue collection, they also have an important responsibility to administer the tax laws and revenue laws of the countries.
‘But in discharging that function you also have a very important responsibility in business and trade facilitation because the efficient, fair and equitable application and administration of our tax laws is an absolutely indispensable component in the health of our environment for doing business.
‘People doing business in our respective jurisdictions…need to know that they have a predictable regime of fiscal laws that will be applied fairly, equitably and efficiently,’ Singh said, adding that ‘investors coming to our countries expect …are looking for predictability in the fiscal frameworks in their host countries in which they are operating’.
He said that in rapidly growing economies, like in Guyana ‘that technology holds significant possibilities that are as yet unlocked.
‘And I want to urge that the Guyana Revenue Authority and tax jurisdictions across the Caribbean remain mindful of this dual responsibility.And I don’t believe that they are conflicting or conflictual. I don’t believe that they collide with each other.
‘Instead, I believe that they are complementary to each other. I believe facilitating investment and trade in an efficient way does not conflict in any way with revenue protection and revenue collection.
‘If we maintain a revenue administration that enjoys a high degree of confidence and demonstrates world class efficiency in the quality of the service that it provides to our citizens, then I believe that will redound to even stronger economic growth, more investment and therefore significant revenue expansion as well,’ Singh added.
The conference will explore topics including how technology, advanced analytics and artificial intelligence can strengthen tax administration, improve compliance, enhance taxpayer services, and support efficient and sustainable revenue mobilisation across the Community.
In her address to the conference, COTA’s president, Felicia Ellie, who is also the the Comptroller of Inland Revenue in St.Lucia, said the event comes at the defining moment for tax administrations across the region.
‘For while our countries may differ in size, geography, and economic circumstances, we all wrestle with similar challenges. We operate in an increasingly complex environment where technological innovation, changing taxpayer expectations, emerging business models, and growing demands for public services require us to rethink how we administer our tax systems. ‘
She said all tax administrations, whether large or small, more advanced or less advanced, need to improve compliance.
‘We want to simplify our processes. We want to harness the technology that is at hand and somehow all of us want to convince our taxpayers that filing on time is better, or filing earlier, I should say, is better than waiting at the last minute.’
She said that the first part of the theme of the confeerence ‘is not simply about adopting new technologies, but it is about transforming our organisations.
‘It is about investing in our people, strengthening governance, safeguarding taxpayer information and ensuring that innovation is guided by fairness, transparency, and accountability.
‘It is about being committed to maintaining public trust and delivering equitable outcomes for all taxpayers. Data-driven, our tax systems are being called upon to do more with less, to be faster, smarter, ore transparent, and more responsive,’ she said, adding that data has become one of the most valuable assets and artificial intelligence is rapidly moving from being a topic of discussion to becoming an operational reality.
The organisers said that another highlight of the meeting here will be a High-Level Regional Meeting on Tax and Development being undertaken in collaboration with the OECD and other regional and international partners in the taxation arena.