Abstract
The sudden collapse of oil prices combined with the COVID 19 pandemic is considered to be the worst economic crisis in the history of Resource-Rich Countries. These two events put immense pressure on the economic performance of these countries even with the huge reserves and volume of exports they enjoyed during the past. This raises the question of what are the particularities of these countries that made them very vulnerable to such shocks. This paper is a gathering of multiple studies and reports dealing with the specific topic of Resource-Rich Countries. More precisely, I try to analyze, based on a literature review, the nature of the Fiscal Regime applied in these nations and what makes it different than other countries. In addition, I investigate the Tax Regime applied in Resource-Rich Countries, with an emphasis on observed strengths or weaknesses. I conclude that the Fiscal Regime in Resource-Rich Countries is generally different in many aspects: these countries are subject to severe price volatility, shocks easily affect the economy, and the nature of the Extractive Industry (EI) is very different and needs adequate policy. I also highlight that the Tax System in Resource-Rich Countries is different as well: low investment in human resources and IT and low reliance on tax revenues. This study provides many recommendations to policymakers and authorities in Resource-Rich Countries. The most important is the necessity to implement a Counter-Cyclical Fiscal Policy. Such a measure can enhance savings during periods of high prices while allowing the government to spend more during periods of crisis. In addition, the paper recommends investing more in the tax administration and enhancing the volume of tax revenues as this can allow more diversification. Many other recommendations are presented to help absorb the shocks caused by a severe drop in commodity prices. This paper is a good reference for experts or researchers in the fields of Fiscal Regimes, Tax Policy, and Resource Riche Countries. It is also useful for any research in the domain of the Extractive Industries as it analyzes many of the aspects related to that industry. Keywords: resource-rich countries, fiscal policy, tax policy, countercyclical fiscal policy, mining.
Highlights
Fiscal Regimes in Resource Dependent African States: A Political Economy Game As mentioned before, this paper focuses more on African countries classified as Resource-Rich
After analyzing the design and nature of the fiscal regimes applied in Resource-Rich Countries, we can discuss the other part of this review, which is related to the revenues collected by the government and how they are implemented
The authors encourage experience sharing between countries accompanied by mutual discussions to design the best-fitted fiscal regime. This overview of the literature showed the particularities of the Resource-Rich Countries and how important a specific fiscal regime is
Summary
Resource-rich countries are defined by the IMF as countries with exports of non-renewable natural resources, such as oil, minerals, and metals, which account for more than 25% of the value of the country’s total exports (Sugawara, 2014) (ED, 2014) (Mohaddes, 2019). Resource-Rich Countries face many challenges such as price volatility, revenue vulnerability, uncertainty of reserves, lack of accountability, and low-quality institutions (Frederick & Poelhekke, 2006) (Carneiro, 2007) (Benghida, 2017) (Bergougui, Sami, & Talbi, 2017) (Kaznacheev, 2017) Because of these challenges and particularities, Resource-Rich Countries apply specific fiscal regimes to face shocks, ensure a high take for the government from extractive industries, attract investors and participate in the Sustainable Development of the country (Japan, 2016) (Nations, 2016). The paper suggests the adoption of a comprehensive fiscal policy framework in Resource-Rich Countries to face uncertainty and volatility, in addition to the improvement of the institutional framework to enhance transparency and accountability. These recommendations are the basis for the paper with an emphasis on Resource-Rich Developing Countries
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