COVID-19: New IMF Notes on Fiscal Issues (Batch 3)

The IMF published on April 29, 2020 the following notes in its Special Series on COVID-19. The notes discuss PFM issues and other fiscal topics. The Special Series notes are produced by IMF experts to help member countries address the economic effects of COVID-19.

Government Cash Management Under Fiscal Stress Faced with decreasing revenues, constrained access to financial markets and large emergency spending needs, governments should adopt a multipronged approach to cash management to ensure there is adequate liquidity to meet their payment obligations.

Issues When Cutting Government Pay to Help Reshuffle Spending in a Crisis Spending needs are at an all-time high but many countries lack fiscal space to ramp up spending. Cutting government pay has been put on the table as a temporary measure to help meet urgent needs. This note discusses key issues to consider.

Revenue Administration: Reinvigorating Operations to Safeguard Collection and Compliance Revenue agencies will have to be ready to restore their operations, safeguard tax collection and recover taxpayers’ compliance to precrisis levels, when COVID-19 spreading is contained and lockdown measures are eased.

Revenue Administration: Safeguarding Revenues for Oil-Producing Countries COVID-19 is contributing to extreme volatility in crude oil prices. Countries dependent on oil revenues face shortfalls; they should take urgent measures and strengthen revenue administration practices to support the sector while protecting revenues.

This article is part of a series related to the Coronavirus Crisis. All of our articles covering the topic can be found on our PFM Blog Coronavirus Articles page.

Note: The posts on the IMF PFM Blog should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy.