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Mr. Manuk Ghazanchyan
,
Mr. Alexander D Klemm
, and
Yong Sarah Zhou
Cambodia, like its regional peers, offers a number of tax incentives to investors. This paper reviews these incentives to assess their costs and benefits, including their likely effectiveness in attracting capital and in supporting the diversification strategy. It finds that an important incentive, the tax holiday, differs materially from practice elsewhere in offering a deferral rather than exempting from tax and may not be very effective. Moreover, other features of the tax system, such as the high withholding rate on dividends, imply relatively high effective tax rates for foreign investors. The paper discusses potential reforms that weigh revenue and other costs of tax incentives against the need for a competitive tax system, including a shift from tax holidays toward investment allowances.
International Monetary Fund
The Technical Assistance Report on the Philippines’ road map for a pro-growth and equitable tax system is examined. Tax revenue has declined over the last decade in the Philippines owing to generous and expanding tax incentives, tariff rate reduction, deteriorating tax compliance caused by ineffective and inefficient revenue administration, and a gradual erosion of excise revenue owing to nonindexation. One of the key reasons for providing tax incentives in the Philippines is concern that the country needs to be competitive with other countries in the region to attract foreign direct investment.
Mr. Alexander D Klemm
,
Mr. Dennis P Botman
, and
Reza Baqir
We compare the general tax provisions and investment incentives in the Philippines to six other east-Asian economies-Malaysia, Indonesia, Lao, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. We calculate effective tax rates and find that general effective tax rates are relatively high in the Philippines, while investment incentives are comparable to those in neighboring countries. Tax holidays are most attractive for very profitable firms, creating redundancy, and for investment in short-lived assets. We also consider recently-proposed tax reforms that would replace tax holidays by a reduced corporate income tax rate or a low tax on gross receipts. The results suggest that this would result in stronger incentives to invest, while government revenue increases. Alternatively, replacing holidays with a general reduction in the corporate tax rate and offering accelerated depreciation will either not provide the same incentives or be very costly.
International Monetary Fund
This study discusses the Philippine output gap from three perspectives and evaluates the utility of the approaches for policymaking. Incentives in the Philippines appear broadly comparable with those in neighboring countries. The reform would also improve short- and especially medium-term revenue collection. The general tax provisions and investment incentives in seven east-Asian economies are compared. The analysis focuses on stocks of foreign assets and liabilities and adopts a cross-country perspective to help determine the Philippines’ position within a broader universe of emerging market economies.
Mr. Kevin Fletcher
Public sector revenue has declined markedly in the Philippines over the past seven years. Most observers of the Philippine economy agree that rebuilding public sector revenue will be critical to reducing deficits and ensuring public sector debt sustainability. This paper reviews several of the main possibilities for raising public sector revenue, including increases in excise, VAT, and electricity rates. It argues that most of these proposals would raise revenue in a relatively efficient manner. Using household-level expenditure data, it also finds that most of these measures would be progressive, especially if they allow the government to avoid cuts in pro-poor spending.
Mr. Nigel A Chalk
The Philippines is faced with a policy dilemma in the area of corporate taxation. On the one hand, the country has, over the past few years, witnessed a decline in revenue as a share of output. On the other, it is operating in an increasingly competitive regional market for foreign direct investment. In order to remain competitive, the Philippines offers a broad array of fiscal incentives to entice inward investment and pursue the country's development goals. This paper looks at the fiscal incentives available in the Philippines, compares them with those available in the ASEAN region, and with the evidence on the efficacy of tax incentives in a global context. The paper provides some broad conclusions on the use of the various forms of tax incentives in the Philippines and on their administration.
International Monetary Fund
This paper discusses major macroeconomic issues confronting Cambodia. The report also discusses recent growth performance of the economy and presents recently updated national accounts estimates. Revenue mobilization remains a key objective since, despite recent significant improvements, revenue performance is still low by international standards. The costs and benefits of a high degree of dollarization are briefly discussed. Export performance and trade policy are also reviewed. Maintaining export growth will depend on maintaining Cambodia's commitment to an open trade and exchange system.
International Monetary Fund

Abstract

This report, commissioned by the Executive Board, was prepared by a committee of academic economists. The report assesses the appropriateness of current research activities, the quality and added value of the IMF's economic research and its utility in the IMF among its member countries and within the wider economics community. This publication also includes responses to the report by the IMF's staff, Managing Director, and Executive Board.

Mr. David C Nellor
This paper focuses on tax policy and the crisis in Asia in the context of globalization and technological change. Two sets of conclusions, specific tax reform measures and general lessons from the crisis, form the tax policy agenda on these issues. The complexity and volume of financial transactions, associated with the opening of emerging markets, have made tax administration a more challenging task. Just as strengthening financial systems must be a precursor to capital account liberalization, tax administrations clearly also require strengthening in such an environment. In many emerging markets the capacity to tax capital returns is limited. Tax administrators need to understand and monitor complex financial transactions that grew rapidly due both to financial sector liberalization and technological innovation. Traditional difficulties for tax administrators, such as transfer pricing, that had often been limited to natural resource sectors in developing economies, took on wider importance as local companies gained sophistication and developed offshore operations.