This annual publication compiles comparable tax revenue statistics for 36 economies, including Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, People’s Republic of China, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Georgia, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, the Maldives, the Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Nauru, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, the Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tokelau, Vanuatu and Viet Nam. Additionally, it provides information on non-tax revenues for 22 of the 36 economies. The publication applies the OECD Revenue Statistics methodology to Asian and Pacific economies, facilitating consistent comparison of tax levels and structures within the region as well as globally. This eleventh edition of the report includes a special feature on tax revenue buoyancy in Asia. The publication is jointly produced by the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration and the OECD Development Centre, in co-operation with the Asian Development Bank, the Pacific Islands Tax Administrators Association and the Pacific Community.
Revenue Statistics in Asia and the Pacific presents key revenue indicators to track progress on domestic resource mobilisation in the region and to inform tax policy reforms that could help close the financing gap to fund the Sustainable Development Goals. This eleventh edition of the report provides comprehensive data on public revenues in the Asia-Pacific region up to 2022.
Revenue Statistics in Asia and the Pacific 2024 presents detailed, internationally comparable data on tax revenues for 36 economies: Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, the People’s Republic of China (hereafter “China”), the Cook Islands, Fiji, Georgia, Hong Kong (China)1, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan2, these above Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Malaysia, the Maldives, the Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Nauru, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Sri Lanka, the Solomon Islands, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tokelau, Vanuatu and Viet Nam.
Tax-to-GDP ratios in Asia and the Pacific
In 2022, the average tax-to-GDP ratio in the 36 Asian and Pacific economies covered in this report was 19.3%, below the averages for the OECD and for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), of 34.0% and 21.5%, respectively. Tax-to-GDP ratios in the region ranged from 7.4% in Sri Lanka to 34.1% in Japan (2021 figure).
The average tax-to-GDP ratio in the Asia-Pacific region increased by 0.6 percentage points (p.p.) between 2021 and 2022 to reach the same level as in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The average tax-to-GDP ratio in the LAC region increased by 0.3 p.p. in 2022 while the average tax-to-GDP ratio among OECD countries declined by 0.1 p.p.
In 2022, the tax-to-GDP ratio increased in just under two-thirds (21) of the 34 economies in the Asia-Pacific region for which data for that year are available. The tax-to-GDP ratio increased by 2.0 p.p. or more in eight economies in 2022: Korea (2.2 p.p.), the Maldives (2.4 p.p.), Papua New Guinea (2.6 p.p.), Fiji (2.8 p.p.), Kyrgyzstan (3.1 p.p.), Kazakhstan (4.2 p.p.), Vanuatu (5.0 p.p.) and Timor-Leste (5.3 p.p.). Increases were driven by a range of factors, including the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, a rebound in tourism and higher commodity prices.
The tax-to-GDP ratio fell in eleven economies in 2022, with four economies reporting a fall larger than 1 p.p.: Kiribati (1.3 p.p.), Tokelau (2.4 p.p.), the Cook Islands (4.7 p.p.) and Nauru (6.7 p.p.). In most of the 11 economies, lower revenue from taxes on goods and services was the main driver of the decline.
Over a longer timeframe, tax-to-GDP ratios increased in half of the 36 Asian and Pacific economies between 2010 and 2022 and declined in the other half. The largest increases were observed in Cambodia (8.8 p.p.), Korea (9.6 p.p.), the Maldives (11.7 p.p.) and Nauru (19.8 p.p., since 2014). In Nauru, Cambodia and the Maldives, the increase was the result of tax policy reforms while in Korea the tax-to-GDP ratio increased from a particularly low level in 2010 attributable to the Global Financial Crisis.
The largest decreases between 2010 and 2022 were observed in Papua New Guinea and the Marshall Islands (of 2.2 p.p. in both cases), Bhutan (2.3 p.p.), the Cook Islands (3.6 p.p.), Sri Lanka (3.7p.p.), Fiji (3.8 p.p.), China (3.9 p.p., excluding social security contributions), Kazakhstan (4.0 p.p.) and Timor-Leste (5.0 p.p.). While the tax-to-GDP ratios of Kazakhstan, Papua New Guinea and Bhutan were affected by falls in commodity prices (and lower production in the case of Timor-Leste), the decrease in Fiji was due to the COVID-19 pandemic: between 2010 and 2019, Fiji’s tax-to-GDP ratio increased by 0.8 p.p. The decrease in Sri Lanka’s tax-to-GDP ratio was a consequence of tax policy reforms and the economic impact of COVID-19.
Tax structures in Asia and the Pacific
Taxes on goods and services remained the principal source of taxation in the Asia-Pacific region in 2022, accounting for 48.8% of total tax revenue, similar to the average level in Africa (33 countries) and the LAC region (51.9%, 2021 figure, and 46.5%, respectively) and higher than the average among OECD countries (31.9%, 2021 figure). Taxes on other goods and services generated a similar share of total tax revenue (23.8%) in the Asia-Pacific region and in Africa (24.1%, 2021 figure), which were both higher than the average for the LAC region (18.2%) and more than twice the OECD average (11.2%, 2021 figure).
Revenue from personal income taxes (PIT) accounted for 15.9% of total tax revenue on average in the Asia-Pacific region in 2022, similar to the Africa (33) average of 17.4% (2021 figure), above the LAC average (9.2%) and below the OECD average (23.7%, 2021 figure). Corporate income taxes (CIT) accounted for a larger share of tax revenue than PIT in the Asia-Pacific region, on average, at 21.3%, which was the highest among the regional averages: on average, CIT accounted for 18.7% of total taxation in Africa (2021 figure), 18.8% in the LAC region and 10.2% in the OECD (2021 figure). Social security contributions accounted for a relatively small proportion of tax revenue on average in Asia and the Pacific, at 7.6% of the total.
Non-tax revenue in selected economies
This publication includes data on non-tax revenue for 22 economies: Bhutan, Cambodia, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Hong Kong (China), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lao PDR, the Maldives, the Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Nauru, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tokelau, Vanuatu and Viet Nam. Between 2021 and 2022, non-tax revenue declined as a percentage of GDP in 16 economies while they increased in six economies.
In 2022, non-tax revenue exceeded 10% of GDP in Bhutan (13.8%), the Cook Islands (17.6%), the Marshall Islands (52.6%), Nauru (58.4%) and Tokelau (141.1%). Grants exceeded 30% of total non-tax revenue in seven economies in 2022 while property-related income accounted for the largest share of non-tax revenue in ten economies.
Special Feature: Tax revenue buoyancy in Asia
The report includes a Special Feature analysing the buoyancy of tax revenue in Asia for the period from 1998 to 2020. The chapter assesses the extent to which tax revenue varied in line with changes in nominal GDP, focusing on tax buoyancy in the short and long run across 24 developing Asian countries. The results show a tax buoyancy close to one in both the short and long run, implying that tax revenue tended to move in line with changes in GDP over the period in question.