Next month Myanmar will submit its first EITI report revealing information on its extractive industries in order to be accepted as a compliant member of the international Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. EITI is the global standard for transparency on natural resource governance. Myanmar was approved as the 45th candidate country at the EITI board meeting in July 2014. The report will contain information received from 13 oil and gas companies, 30 gems companies and 11 companies of the mining sector. An EITI report reflects transparency in extractive industries and it will become possible through this report to track the income from extractive industries and the purposes for which the income has been used thereby lessening the chances for corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in the extractive industries. The extractive industries of Myanmar fetched 40 per cent of the country’s export income in the fiscal year 2014.
As part of the EITI process, some government departments will have to be restructured and the public financial management and the tax system has to be reformed. The opening of the Treasury Department and the Large Tax Prayers Office in 2014 was part of these reforms. The report is being prepared through cooperation between the government and civil organizations and it is important that the report reflects the true situation in the extractive industries of Myanmar.
10thDecember, 2015