Myanmar’s shadow government launches plan to tax business owners

The National Unity Government (NUG) has announced that they plan to end military rule within two years, at which point they will work to rebuild Myanmar with domestic and international businesses who paid taxes to them. 

The Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH)—formed of elected parliamentarians ousted in the February coup—enacted a tax law on Thursday for a fiscal year starting in October and ending in September of next year. 

They reported that they had already received US$150,000 in tax revenue. 

“The people of Myanmar are trying to pay us taxes through all their struggles. Only a very small percentage of major businesses have started paying taxes,” Tin Tun Naing, the NUG’s Minister of Planning, Finance and Investment, said during an online conference on Thursday.

“The main taxpayers right now are the regular office staff and small businesses,” he added. 

He said that taxes could be paid to the NUG through a foreign bank account and that it would not be necessary to provide any information that could compromise the taxpayer’s identity. 

Taxpayers would be allowed to determine their own tax rate for the time being, and granted certificates to indicate that they had paid their share, he added. 

Tin Tun Naing continued that those who failed to pay would be committing tax evasion and face legal action—including the declaration of their assets as illegal—after the revolution had succeeded in overthrowing the junta.  

“Our revolution must finish within two yeras and it must be a success, as well,” he added.

A well-known business tycoon who spoke to Myanmar Now on the condition of anonymity said NUG’s plan would create difficulties for small business owners already struggling with major financial losses due to the coup and the economic effects of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. 

Businesses are forced to pay taxes to the military council regardless of their views concerning the coup regime, he pointed out, or face a forced shutdown for refusing to pay. 

“Donations are quite easy to do, but paying taxes would be a much harder process,” the businessman said of the NUG’s plan. 

The NUG claims that taxes represent government legitimacy and that they comprise one of three strategies that they will employ to increase their funds—the other two are the selling of savings bonds and lottery tickets. 

Months ago, the NUG announced plans to launch the Nway Oo (Spring) Lottery on November 5, named for the Spring Revolution aimed at toppling the coup regime. They claimed they would sell 20b kyat (US$11m) worth of tickets monthly and use 70 percent of the profits to support 100,000 civil servants on strike in accordance with the Civil Disobedience Movement. 

The NUG also claimed they would sell $1b worth of two-year savings bonds ranging from $100 to $5,000 each in value. 

Over the next year, the NUG’s Planning, Finance and Investment Ministry aims to bring in around $800m through these schemes. 

The funds will be used to provide social welfare programming, healthcare and education, Tin Tun Naing said, adding that the budget for the defence services would be funded separately and further details released later.