Revenue Statistics in Asia and the Pacific 2025

In 2023, the average tax-to-GDP ratio in the 37 Asian and Pacific economies covered in this report was 19.6%, below the averages for OECD countries and for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), of 33.9% and 21.3%, respectively. Tax-to-GDP ratios in the region ranged from 7.3% in Bangladesh to 35.3% in Niue.

The average tax-to-GDP ratio in the Asia-Pacific region increased by 0.1 percentage points (p.p.) between 2022 and 2023 and was above the level in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, of 19.3%. The average tax-to-GDP ratio among OECD countries declined by 0.1 p.p. in 2023 while the average for the LAC region decreased by 0.2 p.p. in the same year and remained below its pre-COVID level.

In 2023, the tax-to-GDP ratio increased in more than two-thirds (23) of the 35 economies in the Asia-Pacific region for which data for 2023 are available. The tax-to-GDP ratio increased by 2.0 p.p. or more in eight economies: Niue (4.5 p.p.), the Cook Islands (3.4 p.p.), Azerbaijan (3.4 p.p.), the Maldives (3.2 p.p.), Vanuatu (2.8 p.p.), Fiji (2.5 p.p.), Tokelau (2.4 p.p.) and Sri Lanka (2.0 p.p.). Increases were driven by a range of factors, including a rebound in tourism, increased business activity and national tax reforms.

Tax-to-GDP ratios fell in twelve economies in 2023, with two economies reporting a fall larger than 10 p.p.: Timor-Leste (10.2 p.p.) and Nauru (10.1 p.p.). The next-largest contractions occurred in Korea (3.1 p.p.) and Viet Nam (2.0 p.p.). In economies where tax revenues fell as a share of GDP, lower revenue either from corporate income taxes (CIT) or taxes on goods and services was the main driver of the decline.

Over a longer timeframe, tax-to-GDP ratios increased in 22 of the 37 Asian and Pacific economies between 2010 and 2023 and declined in 15 economies. The largest increases were observed in the Maldives (14.8 p.p.), Niue (13.1 p.p.), Nauru (9.6 p.p., since 2014), Japan (8.2 p.p., 2010-22), Cambodia (7.1 p.p.) and Korea (6.5 p.p.). In Cambodia, the Maldives, Nauru and Niue, the increases resulted from tax policy reforms while in Japan and Korea tax-to-GDP ratios increased from a particularly low level in 2010 attributable to the Global Financial Crisis.

The largest decreases between 2010 and 2023 occurred in Timor-Leste (15.2 p.p.), Kazakhstan (4.3 p.p.), China (3.5 p.p., excluding social security contributions), the Marshall Islands and Viet Nam (3.1 p.p. in both cases). Falls in global commodity prices partly drove the declines in Kazakhstan and Timor-Leste.

Taxes on goods and services remained the principal source of taxation in the Asia-Pacific region in 2023, accounting for 50.2% of total tax revenue, similar to the average level in Africa and the LAC region (51.3%, 2022 figure, and 47.0%, respectively) and higher than the average among OECD countries (31.5%, 2022 figure). Value added taxes (VAT) were the largest contributor to tax revenue in Asia and the Pacific among major tax types, accounting for 25.8% of total tax revenue. The share was smaller than in Africa and the LAC region on average (27.0%, 2022 figure, and 28.5% respectively) but well above the OECD average of 20.8% (2022 figure). Taxes on other goods and services generated a similar share of total tax revenue in the Asia-Pacific region (24.3%) and Africa (24.4%, 2022 figure), which were both higher than the average for the LAC region (18.5%) and more than twice the OECD average (10.8%, 2022 figure).

Revenue from personal income taxes (PIT) accounted for 16.5% of total tax revenue on average in Asia-Pacific in 2023, comparable to the Africa average of 16.2% (2022 figure), above the LAC average (9.5%) and below the OECD average (23.6%, 2022 figure). CIT generated a larger share of tax revenue than PIT in the Asia-Pacific region, at 19.5%; this was the highest level among the regional averages except for Africa (21.2%, 2022 figure). On average, CIT accounted for 18.7% of revenue in the LAC region and 12.0% in OECD (2022 figure). Social security contributions accounted for a relatively small proportion of tax revenue on average in Asia and the Pacific, at 7.7% of the total.

This publication includes data on non-tax revenue for 23 economies: Bhutan, Cambodia, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Hong Kong (China), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lao PDR, the Maldives, the Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Nauru, Niue, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tokelau, Vanuatu and Viet Nam. Between 2022 and 2023, non-tax revenue increased as a percentage of GDP in sixteen economies while it declined in seven.

In 2023, non-tax revenue exceeded 10% of GDP in Niue (218.5%), Tokelau (98.0%), Nauru (77.9%), the Marshall Islands (51.5%), Vanuatu (16.7%) and Bhutan (13.9%). Grants exceeded 30% of total non-tax revenue in nine economies in 2023 while property-related income accounted for the largest share of non-tax revenue in twelve economies.

PIT revenue is not a significant part of the tax mix of developing economies in the Asia-Pacific region on average and its contribution has barely risen since 2010. The Special Feature of this year’s edition of Revenue Statistics in Asia and the Pacific examines the evolution of PIT revenue in developing economies across the region as well as common characteristics of their PIT systems in terms of design and administration, and the challenges to increasing these revenues faced by governments in the region.