Revenue Audit, as an independent and important domain of public auditing, has been engaging the attention of the Supreme Audit Institutions for quite some time. Right from the INTOSAI declarations at Brazil in May 1959, the various declarations of INTOSAI and ASOSA1 have stressed the importance of this function. The Bali Declaration of June 1988 issued a fairly detailed guideline in the area of tax audit. )
The ASOSAI Governing Board which met in Sydney, Australia in May 1993 decided to launch the Fourth ASOSAI Research Project on "Government Revenues - Accountability and Audit". Consequently the present project was undertaken by a research team consisting of the following members:
This publication is the outcome of the Research Project. Twenty Five member countries of ASOSAI have contributed papers for this Research Project.
On behalf of ASOSAI, I would like to express my appreciation of the work done by the members of the research team. I would also like to thank all the members of ASOSAI, especially those who have contributed country papers for this project. Without their active co-operation and support it would not have been possible to bring out this publication. My thanks are also due to the Auditors General of India, Malaysia and Australia for making their Senior Officers available for this project.
This book brings out the structure and framework of revenue audit in the member countries of ASOSA1. The papers bring out the revenue scenario (tax and non -tax) in different countries and some macro-economic indicators like tax - GDP ratio and other comparators. I hope this publication will be useful and interesting for professionals in public auditing as well as academicians, researchers, administrators and legislators.
Kunarto
Acting Chairman of the Supreme Audit Board
of Indonesia and
Chairman of ASOSAI
May 1998