"Burma?s tottering economy is suffering from a tax system crippled by corruption and desperately in need of reform... Many of Burma?s citizens do not pay tax. In fact, Burma has one of the world?s lowest ratios of tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The ratio has declined since the mid-1990s, as reports from the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) indicate. Government revenues or taxation were at 7.8 percent of GDP in 1997-98 but dropped to a low of 2.3 percent in 2000-01. The ADB attributes the decline to a relatively slow increase in tax receipts. But government officials at the Finance and Revenue Ministry have quietly admitted to The Irrawaddy that the drop is mainly the result of overestimating the GDP, part of the regime?s propaganda drive to gloss over the nation?s economic woes. Failing state economic enterprises and growing public sector imports, notably defense imports, have left the junta with a large fiscal deficit. So now the question is: How can it attract new revenue or new taxes to fill the growing holes in the budget?..."