Asean pushes regional cooperation on taxation

MANILA, Philippines - Finance ministers in the Southeast Asian region have proposed the establishment of a regional cooperation on taxation.

In a statement, the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Finance Ministers’ Meeting endorsed the establishment of the ASEAN Forum on Taxation or AFT.

The forum, agreed upon during the 15th ASEAN Finance Ministers Meeting in Indonesia last week, aims to provide a platform to support regional dialogue on taxation issues for regional integration, particularly related to withholding tax and double taxation.

Finance ministers in the region have acknowledged that there have been a lot of problems with double taxation.

The end goal is for each ASEAN country’s tax system to improve and for all members to learn from the system of each other. A meeting later this year has already been set, the group also said.

“This will also serve as a mechanism to strengthen cooperation in tax matters. We tasked the relevant officials to organize this group and commence their meeting this year. We look forward to the outcome of the group’s discussion at our next meeting,” the group said.

In the area of insurance, ASEAN Finance ministers also discussed possible cooperation in the area of insurance as they discussed the vulnerability of the region to disasters caused by natural hazards, including the economic cost of disaster losses.

“Keeping in mind the economic and fiscal burden in the aftermath of a disaster, we reiterated the need for disaster risk financing in the insurance markets in the region,” the group said.

As such, the Finance ministers agreed to assign  insurance officials to explore risk-financing options and mechanisms.

Overall, ASEAN Finance ministers agreed to continue stepping up efforts towards the recovery of the region following the global financial crisis that struck in 2008.

“We will ensure that our actions will contribute to the global recovery and strong, sustainable, and balanced growth in the Asian region. We stand ready to bolster the prospects for effective economic policy cooperation and coordination,” it said.