During the 76th session of the UN General Assembly on 14-30 September 2021, the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) strongly urged governments in Asia to reject the OECD-G7-G20’s “tax deal of the rich” and heed civil society demands for democratic, inclusive, and transformative global tax architecture.
This video was shot during the Days of Action for Tax Justice on 23-24 September 2021.
This comic strip is inspired by real stories of APMDD members across the region. As COVID-19 lockdowns brought already marginalized communities to extreme crises of survival, people came together in the spirit of solidarity. Community pantries and kitchens, the delivery of basic necessities to the elderly and others who must keep indoors, among other community-led initiatives, are testament to peoples’ solidarity.
People’s solidarity, however strong and effective, is not a substitute for the State’s responsibility to provide essential public services, especially amidst widening inequalities in Asia. People living in extreme poverty, barely affording a single meal in a day, are estimated to have increased to over 100 million in Asia. Gender inequalities have also deepened with heavier demands on women to provide a disproportionate amount of time on unpaid care work in the midst of greater female unemployment and widening gender wage gaps. Ironically, Asia and the Pacific has also seen rapid growth in wealth by individuals and corporations amounting to over US$ 7.5 billion in 2020 alone.
The COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts presented a historical opportunity to reform tax and fiscal systems, including global tax rules, to make them work for people and the planet. Tax policies should serve to reduce inequalities, not exacerbate them. Global tax rules should not be biased in favour of elite countries and MNCs’ profit driven agendas. Global tax rules should help to reduce inequalities within and across countries, and “no one should be left behind” in rule making. As representatives of 193 member-states of the United Nations gathered for the 76th session of the UN General Assembly on 14-30 September 2021, the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) and allies reiterated their call to make taxes work for women!
Participants to the Webinar – Inequalities, Public Services and Tax Justice made the sign for equality to cap off a two-hour session that brought together organizations and communities in the frontlines of fighting inequalities and most affected by failing public services and loss of public revenues due to flawed fiscal and tax systems. Over 110 attended the webinar, and learnt about how to strengthen campaigns on tax and fiscal justice especially in light of developments in global, regional, and domestic policy-making.
The webinar aimed to:
• Surface some of the most pressing issues faced by marginalised sectors and communities in the context of failing public services and deepening inequalities;
• Highlight the systemic barriers to making public services accessible and responsive to people’s needs and rights, drawing the links to gaps and flaws in fiscal and tax systems;
• Discuss and collectively analyze key developments in national, regional, and global policy fronts that impact inequalities and people’s access and right to public services; and,
• Facilitate sharing of strategies for advancing tax and fiscal justice agenda, with a focus on public services.
Seen from an economic justice perspective, the results of the recently concluded meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank governors in Venice are a huge disappointment. The G20 through its finance leaders resoundingly echoed the OECD tax proposals, considered by many leaders of developing countries and CSOs as “false solutions.”
“The G20 did not address the fundamental flaws in the international tax architecture nor respond to the needs, rights, and interests of peoples of the Global South,” said Lidy Nacpil of the Asian Peoples Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD).
“The disappointing outcome of this latest G20 finance leaders’ meeting is perhaps not surprising. It simply underscores the longstanding objection of civil society organizations to the persistent hijacking by rich countries of the agenda to transform global tax rules that have historically benefitted multinational corporations residing within their jurisdictions,” Nacpil added.
In a Communique issued after their meeting concluded last July 10, G20 finance leaders noted that the “global outlook” has improved but that the recovery has “great divergence” across and within countries. The so-called “historic agreement” of the G20 finance leaders is built upon a mere endorsement of the Two-Pillar solution on tax issues proposed by the OECD but widely criticized by CSOs and thought leaders from Africa, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and other parts of the world.
In response to the Communique of the G20 Finance Ministers Meeting held in Venice on 9-10 July 2021, Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) Coordinator Lidy Nacpil said that in regard to climate, debt, and tax, the statement is underwhelming and fails to offer any indication that the demands of peoples of the Global South are heard.
