Asian civil society calls on finance ministers to stop tax abuse by multinational corporations, shift tax burden from workers to super-rich
NEW YORK — As government delegates deliberate the ‘zero draft’ of a United Nations convention on international tax cooperation, civil society groups across Asia called for an ambitious global tax treaty that would secure fair allocation of taxing rights and end decades of revenue drain from developing nations.
The fifth session of the intergovernmental negotiations for the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation commenced on August 3 at the UN Headquarters in New York. The entire global membership has a seat at the table to negotiate the new UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation. On the agenda are draft texts of articles for the Convention that address a range of topics, such as the effective taxation of high net worth individuals, and two early protocols.
The Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), alongside member organizations and regional partners including Tax and Fiscal Justice Asia (TAFJA), spearheaded strategic appeals to key finance ministries across Asia and to government negotiating teams.
The civil society coalition is urging Asian delegates to maintain a firm, aligned position alongside the Group of 77 (G77) and the Africa Group to dismantle an international tax architecture that heavily favors the Global North and multinational corporations.
“More than $1 billion is drained every single day from our economies due to tax abuse by multinational corporations and the super-rich,” said Lidy Nacpil, Coordinator of APMDD.
“This is not just a technical debate about accounting rules. It is a fundamental issue of economic and climate justice and of human rights. The UN Tax Convention represents a historic opportunity to dismantle an unjust international tax architecture and ensure that adequate public resources are generated for funding essential public services, social protection, and climate action.”
Studies estimate that global corporate profit shifting and tax abuse by the super rich cost governments well over $480 billion annually (averaging more than $1.3 billion every day) in lost revenue.
The two-week negotiating session in New York follows the publication of the UN Co-Leads’ Zero Draft Framework Convention. The current treaty process stems from the landmark November 2023 vote by 125 UN Member States to establish a universally negotiated tax system, followed by the General Assembly’s adoption of formal Terms of Reference in late 2024.
Coalition members emphasize that communities across Asia face a crushing “double cost.” Low- and middle-income households, daily wage earners, women, and informal sector workers carry an unfair share of national tax loads through regressive consumption levies like the General Sales Tax (GST). Meanwhile, multinational technology giants and extractive corporations exploit tax havens, generous incentives, and profit-shifting loopholes to evade local taxes. The financial squeeze leaves climate-vulnerable Asian nations without the revenue needed to rebuild after severe floods, heatwaves, and droughts.
To address these imbalances, the civil society coalition outlined non-negotiable treaty requirements in its representations to regional leaders. Central to these demands is democratizing global tax governance by establishing a fully inclusive, transparent intergovernmental tax body under the UN where every country has equal voting power, stripping decision-making authority from elite bodies like the OECD, G7, and G20. The coalition is pressing for targeted wealth taxes on high-net-worth Individuals and global minimum tax standards to recover hundreds of billions annually for essential services and development.
The groups are calling for a UN Tax Convention that secures fair allocation of taxing rights and ensures the equitable taxation of multinational enterprises based on where actual economic activity and market revenues take place.
To ensure corporate accountability, the groups are demanding mandatory public Beneficial Ownership and Asset Registries, country-by-country corporate reporting, and strict penalties for trade misinvoicing to stem the flow of tax-related illicit financial flow.
They also demand the integration of the Polluter Pays Principle in the Convention, and the setting up of a global mechanism to effectively tax high-emitting industries and fossil fuel companies. This will scale up the public resources available to address climate-related loss and damage and to fund adaptation effort. Finally, the groups strongly back the proposals for a standalone article on extractives to halt corporate profit-shifting and curb the destructive regional “race to the bottom” on tax incentives. In its Open Letter to Asian Governments on Tax Justice Imperatives, TAFJA, joined by APMDD and several CSOs from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam, urged negotiators to support a meaningful UN Tax Convention to “rewrite global tax rules for our people and the sustainability of the planet.”
Nacpil said that a progressive UN Tax Convention offers a crucial pathway to restore fiscal sovereignty and domestic resources amid growing debt crises across the Global South.
“Asian nations carry significant clout in global tax talks due to the indispensable nature of their consumer and industrial markets for foreign enterprises. Multinational corporations cannot afford to be excluded from our markets. Crucially, the UN’s ‘one country, one vote’ system allows Asian nations to unite with the Global South and form a dominant voting bloc to rewrite the rules. Our participation is no longer optional. It is essential.”
“We urge our governments to step up as champions for their people,” Nacpil added. “The August session must reflect an ambitious negotiating position that prioritizes human rights, gender equality, and planetary survival over elite corporate interests.”