It seems to me that the new Morales government is working hard to make Bolivia a more independent nation. In May of 2003, when I left Bolivia after a three year stay, receipts and invoices were only given upon request. For most businesses, invoices and sales receipts were anathema. At the time, this seemed to be a classic case of Bolivian bungling, with a dash of laziness added to the mix.

Now I realize that this apparent bungling was nothing less than socially sanctioned tax evasion . Consumers didn’t demand a receipt, and businesses were happy to oblige them, thereby leaving no paper trail by which the government could collect tax revenues.

The Bolivian government, of course, was well aware of the situation on the street. However, by grossly under collecting annual tax revenues, the government expertly positioned itself to benefit from billions of dollars in foreign aid. As the money poured in, institutionalized corruption flourished. After all, the Bolivian people were more likely to overlook this unsavory practice if the grafted money wasn’t their own.

Within a few short months, those days are gone. The new Morales government has sent covert consumers into the streets of the country’s larger urban areas. Businesses that do not give sales receipts are reported, fined, and shut down for two to three days. Within weeks, other businesses took these examples to heart. Since I’ve been here, every purchase I’ve made at an established business has come with a sales receipt.

For many businesses, after years and years of tax evasion, this is certainly a painful start to a new beginning. However, the long-term effect on Bolivia as a nation will undoubtedly be positive. A central government that has been historically plagued by budget shortages and chronically dependent on international aid will, at least to some degree, begin to stand on its own two feet.

Still, the taxation and revenue system remains full of imperfections. Over thirty percent of Bolivia’s population is rural; rural economies, as argued so eloquently by pioneering economist Hernando de Soto, are overwhelmingly extralegal. How can the government tax something that, by their standards, doesn’t even exist?