Learning from practice: Revenue close to home
Basel Institute on Governance
Strengthening property tax collection in Peruvian municipalities
Property tax is an important source of revenue for local governments in Peru. It allows them to finance local projects that directly benefit their communities. But collection rates are low, meaning less money to spend on public services.
Between 2019 and 2025, the Swiss-funded Subnational Public Finance Management (PFM) programme, implemented by the Basel Institute on Governance, has supported five provincial municipalities to diagnose, reform and strengthen their revenue mobilisation.
By focusing on every stage of the tax management cycle, it helped them identify unregistered taxpayers, update real estate ownership records, launch tax campaigns on time and leverage technology to reach taxpayers more effectively.
As a result, property tax collection grew by an average of 47 percent. Abancay and San Martín made the strongest gains, with an increase of 138 percent and 46 percent respectively.
About this publication
This publication presents insights and lessons learned from over a decade of working with regional and municipal governments in Peru to strengthen public financial management systems and practices under our Programa GFP Subnacional. The programme is funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) through its cooperation programme in Peru.
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Disclaimer: The contents are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Basel Institute on Governance, its donors and partners, or the University of Basel.