The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released its latest Going for Growth 2019 report, which calls for governments to embark on structural reforms that boost sustainable growth, raise incomes and increase opportunities for all.

This year’s edition presents the top structural reform priorities in 46 OECD and non-OECD economies, alongside assessment of progress countries have made on key reforms in the past years. It points to a disappointing pace of reforms in 2017-2018, finding little sign of an imminent pick-up from the already modest pace of reform observed in the previous two years.

It also points out that the weakening of growth comes at a time when globalisation, digitalisation, population ageing and environmental degradation are key forces shaping economic developments. To better manage these megatrends, governments must carefully select, prepare, prioritise and implement country-specific structural reforms that boost long-term growth, improve competitiveness and productivity, create jobs and ensure a cleaner environment and equal opportunities for all.

Australia: Improve the efficiency of the tax system

The report contains a country note on Australia. The country note points out that one reform priority for Australia is to improve the efficiency of its tax system, through shifting from comparatively heavy taxation of incomes to more consumption taxes, which would make the tax mix more growth friendly.

It notes that while actions have been taken to reduce corporate taxes for small and medium firms and personal income taxes, Australia should also consider other reforms, including raising the rate of goods and services tax (GST) and widening its tax base, further reducing the corporate tax rate for big firms, and removing inefficient taxes such as state-level fees and charges.

 

Comments are closed.