The tax effort in Myanmar has lagged behind comparable efforts in other ASEAN countries (Table 7). The government’s budgeted tax yield was projected to increase from 3.1% of GDP in FY2012 to 4.6% in FY2013, and the actual tax yield (after taking account of the supplementary budget) is estimated at
6.4% of GDP in FY2012 and 6.6% of GDP in FY2013. But this will still be one of the lowest levels of tax yield in the world. Buoyant revenues from natural resources have probably retarded reform efforts and
encouraged widespread use of tax incentives for nonrevenue purposes.10 In addition, Myanmar’s tax system is complex and compliance is extremely low due to lack of knowledge and administrative bottlenecks.