Beltway Area Indymedia

Members of the Mobilization for Global Justice staged a mock press conference Thursday, a day prior to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Spring meetings. On the eve of the US annual tax filing deadline of April 16, MGJ called attention to regressive tax policies pushed by the IMF on borrowing countries, which systematically transfer the tax burden from the wealthy to the poor.

Examples of regressive IMF tax policy around the world include:

The IMF is pressuring the government of Zambia to remove the exemptions from Value Added Tax for mosquito nets (essential for public health in this malaria-affected country), food, water, and sewage service.;

In Pakistan, the IMF used a military government to impose the General Sales Tax (GST), a national sales tax on most consumer items. At the same time, they pressured the government to eliminate the Wealth Tax;

The IMF forced the Dominican Republic to raise the Value Added Tax on essential goods – in the words of Finance Minister Vicente Bengoa, “at gun point”.

This is a video of the event.