Within the framework of the inclusive and sustainable tax systems line of action of the EUROsociAL II Programme, financed by the European Union, A technical assistance mission took place in Ecuador over the week of 3rd to 6th November 2015. The aim was to improve revenue collection by public entities in the sale of goods and services. 

Ecuador has undertaken diverse reforms in recent years to move forward in rationalisation in the area of fees and charges associated with the sale of goods and services. On the one hand, it has updated their amounts so that they cover the costs of the services. On the other, as of the last two budget periods, the revenues generated through this channel no longer go into the budgets of the entities responsible for managing them but rather directly into the state treasury. Lastly, the use of official stamp-impressed paper for payment has been replaced with electronic invoicing.

As another step in this reform process, the technical assistance aims to establish a methodology for setting revenue-generation targets and management indicators for the entities that manage these public revenues. Once these revenues are no longer incorporated directly into their budgets, it will be essential to increase control over these entities in order to promote collection efficiency, and likewise to set up a system of incentives and indicators.

This activity included advising by two civil servants from the tax administration agency of the City Hall of Málaga, Spain, which has extensive experience on the subject based on having established, some time ago, a system of targets and indicators in municipal entities that manage fees. Its experience in the implementation of a series of targets and indicators in municipal fee-management entities made it possible to define a collection system in Ecuador.

On this occasion, a local entity participated as a transferring institution, since in the European context the local administrations are the principal collectors of public fees and charges.

The activity included, on the part of Ecuador, the participation of representatives of the National Directorate of Revenue and the Under-Secretariat of Budget of the Ministry of Finance, and a visit to the Directorate-General of Civil Registration. 

This activity is within the framework of the Reform of Tax Systems action of the Public Finance area of the EUROsociAL Programme, financed by the European Union and coordinated by FIIAPP, in which Spain's Institute for Tax Studies and the CIAT are acting as operational partners.