The Board of Directors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) adopted an amendment to the Anticorruption Policy (1998, as amended to date)—Enhancing the Role of the Asian Development Bank in Relation to Tax Integrity (the tax integrity policy) in December 2016. The tax integrity policy calls on ADB to take actions to promote tax integrity at a country, project, and institutional level.
The implementation of fixed exchange rate regime for 20 years (1994-2014) resulted in a formation of an insecure currency position for all interest groups, including the government and business. Although the pressures on manat have commenced to increase since the second half of 2014, the Central Bank and the government failed in comprehending the process. That is why, promising statements have been made to the general public. But the following events proved the underlying problem more severe and the implemented monetary, fiscal and exchange rate policies ineffective in the long-term. Business, citizens, as well as state-owned enterprises faced serious financial losses. The country experienced serious threats with regard to its financial sustainability. The Central Bank promised that "stable exchange rate of manat is going to be among the important priorities" in its statement on the major directions of monetary and financial stability policies in 2015, nonetheless, only after two months a decision about the devaluation amounted to 25.7% of national currency has been adopted. The next devaluation of 32.3% on December 21, 2015 made manat the worst performing currency of the year. Thus, manat lost its value by 49.6%. All interest groups are now seeking answers to their questions such as until when manat is going to depreciate, what to expect from the monetary policy of the Central Bank, what to expect from the liberal exchange rate regime. This report will try to provide answers to the aforementioned questions in the following chapters.
NZIER's Monetary Policy Shadow Board's recommendation to the Reserve Bank is broadly unchanged from the previous meeting in May. The Shadow Board again recommends the Reserve Bank leave the Official Cash Rate on hold this Thursday at 1.75 percent, with a tightening bias.
This handbook provides nonbanking financial institutions guidance on how to manage risks associated with money laundering and the financing of terrorism. It reflects the requirements of the international standard setter in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing—the Financial Action Task Force—and is intended to serve as the basis for developing internal controls and procedures by nonbanking financial institutions to combat such actions.
The Turkish Sovereign Wealth Fund (TWF) has recently been in the subject of public discussion since its establishment in August 2016. The National Lottery, games of chance and horse racing were placed in the Fund since. On February 5th, the subject came up again when some public lands as well as public securities listed in the following table were added to the fund. The public shares in Turkish Airlines and Halk Bank, previously under the Privatization Administration, are the most notable additions.
This comparative analysis report, the second in a series, is part of ADB's regional research and development project on tax administration that analyzes the administrative frameworks, functions, and performance of 21 economies in Asia and the Pacific. The initial version of this report was published in 2014. The primary objective of the series is to motivate governments and revenue officials by sharing knowledge of important developments and trends in tax administration practice and performance, and to identify opportunities to enhance the operation of their tax systems.
Every tax administration throughout the world collects taxes from its taxpayers in order to garner resources for the government's public expenditure. Naturally, this process becomes easier for the tax administration if the taxpayers willingly and voluntarily comply with their obligations under the country's tax code. In enhancing taxpayers' level of voluntary compliance, three factors play a very important role – certainty about the tax to be paid (it relates to the ability to determine without any ambiguity, the tax payable on any transaction since ambiguity adds to the cost of compliance), the convenience to pay it (the means and methods using which the taxpayer can pay his share of tax to the government with minimum compliance cost), and the attitude of the tax administration which drives both of these (helpful, unobtrusive and non-adversarial). It is therefore an important responsibility of every country's revenue body to provide relevant and easily understandable information to the taxpayers which would help facilitate paying of taxes, filing of returns and other activities by the taxpayers. As a corollary to this, improving information service delivery also becomes critical to boost the said voluntary compliance. In the realm of information service delivery, revenue bodies have realised that each category or group of taxpayers act or respond differently to their immediate tax environment as well as to the information that is provided by the revenue bodies. There is a need to carry out 'taxpayer segmentation' so that the diverse categories of taxpayers can be catered to accordingly.
Effective pension management, financial education curricula in schools, internationally comparable data on financial literacy and the evaluation of the effectiveness of financial education programs are highlighted in this book. Surveys show that financial literacy levels are typically low around the world, despite the widening access to financial services and the increasing financial risks borne by households in many countries. This suggests that there will be mounting challenges for households and SMEs to invest wisely and effectively as societies age and governments shift away from defined benefit to defined contribution pension schemes. Individuals will increasingly have to make complex financial decisions to plan for their retirement and for a range of foreseen and unforeseen expenditures. All of these developments suggest that financial education should be part of a lifetime process that starts at an early age and is pursued throughout adulthood.
A vibrant stratum of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is critical for the growth and development of Asian economies. These enterprises generate employment, contribute to investment, participate in value chains, and support innovation. SMEs that seek to sustain and grow their operations, however, face a variety of constraints, many of which are directly related to size. These "size-induced market failures" create a role for public policy intervention. This book focuses on the market failures encountered by enterprises in the key areas of technology and innovation, credit and finance, education and skills, and market access. Obstacles to SME participation in the rapidly expanding regional and global value chains are also examined. The chapter authors examine national and multicountry experiences in South, East, and Southeast Asia.
Effective pension management, financial education curricula in schools, internationally comparable data on financial literacy and the evaluation of the effectiveness of financial education programs are highlighted in this book. Surveys show that financial literacy levels are typically low around the world, despite the widening access to financial services and the increasing financial risks borne by households in many countries. This suggests that there will be mounting challenges for households and SMEs to invest wisely and effectively as societies age and governments shift away from defined benefit to defined contribution pension schemes. Individuals will increasingly have to make complex financial decisions to plan for their retirement and for a range of foreseen and unforeseen expenditures. All of these developments suggest that financial education should be part of a lifetime process that starts at an early age and is pursued throughout adulthood.
Vietnam's fiscal position has deteriorated rapidly in recent years. For example, its budget deficit in 2015 increased 14 per cent to reach 256 trillion dongs (US$11.47 billion), equivalent to 6.1 per cent of its GDP (CafeF, 2016). The country's increasingly precarious fiscal position has been identified by experts as an urgent matter that can generate potential risks for its long-term macro-economic stability (see, for example, Financial Times, 2016; VnExpress, 2015b). It also poses a considerable challenge for Vietnam's new government in achieving socio-economic targets set by the recent twelfth congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). If the fiscal imbalance persists or worsens, it will generate serious economic, political and strategic implications for Vietnam. Solving or mitigating the problem, however, will require not only sound economic policies but also political determination to embrace challenging reforms on the part of the CPV. This essay seeks to examine this particular problem and its implications. It provides first an overview of Vietnam's worsening fiscal position and its underlying reasons, and then an analysis of the economic, political and strategic implications that can be expected in the coming years.
This publication reviews recent developments in East Asian local currency bond markets along with the outlook, risks, and policy options. It covers the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the People's Republic of China; Hong Kong, China; and the Republic of Korea.
In December 2015, compared to the same month of the previous year 2014, the volume of total deposits increased by 24.8% (3 080 mln GEL), while the volume of total loans to the national economy increased by 23.5% (3 074 mln GEL). Taking exchange rates into consideration, the growth rate of the deposits is 5.4% and the growth rate of the loans is 5.8%. In this period, the average interest rate on deposits denominated in foreign currency declined by 0.6 percentage point and on deposits denominated in the national currency increased by 1.1% percentage. Regarding loans, interest rates on loans denominated in foreign currencies declined by 1.1 percentage point and on loans denominated in GEL declined by 0.6% point.
