In the period 7 to 11 April 2008, senior staff from the Macedonian Public Revenue Office (PRO), including the Director General Goran Trajkovski, visited the Netherlands Tax and Customs Administration (NTCA) where they were provided with an overview of a modern tax administration environment. The aim of the visit was to gain an overall perspective of the NTCA’s Information Technology platforms, data processing  and call centre environment. These are key initiatives currently underway at the PRO and much was learnt from the visit, which confirmes that the PRO’s modernisation strategy is in line with international  best practices.

The Dutch authorities organised a successful visit that provided the PRO delegation with much needed information and strategies to further improve the tax administration in Macedonia. The visit took place in the framework of the technical assistance program at the Public Revenue Office funded by the Netherland Embassy with the IMF as an implementing partner for the period 2006-2009. The project has been extremely successful to date with revenues far exceeding projections. As an example, in the first quarter of 2008 collected revenues exeeded projections by 17% and they were by 24% higher compared to the collected revenues in the same period last year.