Asian Development Bank
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) endorses the ATI objectives of the Addis Tax Initiative and has joined the Addis Tax Initiative as ATI supporting organisation. ADB's priority is to strengthen public financial management, including expenditure and debt management, in order to support domestic revenue mobilisation in their developing member countries.
The ADB has been successful in collaborating with ATI supporting organisations and other international partners to provide capacity development activities, as ADB’s response to the region’s diverse and specific challenges and needs on domestic revenue mobilisation.
ADB Strategy 2030 was published in July 2018 to effectively respond to the region’s changing needs. Under ADB Strategy 2030, ADB sustains its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty and expand its vision to achieve a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific. DRM and Strengthening Governance and Institutional Capacity are pined as one of ADB’s seven operational priority areas. These areas will either be pursued as standalone priorities or be combined with other priorities. For example, governance with DRM will be integrated across ADB operations, as appropriate.
Public investments financed by government budgets are the dominant means of financing infrastructure and public services. To mobilize more domestic resources, ADB continuously support developing member countries (DMCs) in strengthening their revenue collection and expenditure management systems. ADB also helps in strengthening the transparency and management of respective DMCs governments’ debt to ensure debt sustainability in coordination with other development partners. The support for DMCs to develop financial institutions and capital markets can more effectively help channel the region’s savings that can result to productive investments. ADB’s expansion of local currency operations helps develop local currency markets and reduce risks.
Within the context of taxation or complementary to it, ADB helps DMCs improve governance and create an enabling environment for sustainable growth by strengthening the quality and capacity of public institutions to undertake tax policy and administrative reforms and to eradicate corruption and strengthen anti-money laundering activities. ADB proactively seek ways to promote the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) across its operations. It also provides capacity building assistance to DMCs for greater accountability for the services provided, as ICT will promote effective, timely, and corruption-free delivery of public services.
The Domestic Resource Mobilization Trust Fund (DRMTF), with financial contribution equivalent to $6.0 million from the Government of Japan, provides financial support to DMCs to implement the ATI initiative and to boost tax collection through: (i) broadening and protecting the domestic tax base through fair and effective tax policies; (ii) enhancing tax compliance, including improved risk management, audit and enforcement, and taxpayer services; and (iii) developing more transparent and efficient tax administration with streamlined business and digital technologies.
Moreover, ADB supports DMCs to: (i) meet internationally agreed standards on tax transparency, (ii) counter tax evasion and aggressive forms of tax planning, and (iii) protect themselves against base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS), through country capacity needs assessments, operational support to address country-specific challenges and issues, regional high-level policy dialogues, and in-country and regional training programs.
