Estimating Value-Added Tax Using a Supply and Use Framework

Value-added tax (VAT) generates significant government revenue in many countries and given their broad coverage, VAT measurements are useful indicators for economic and fiscal analyses. This publication presents the Asian Development Bank’s National Accounts Statistics Value-Added Tax model, which is designed to provide a more consistent measure of non-recoverable VAT on products for national account statistics. Highlighting application results in Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, it explains how the model can be used in balancing and reconciling supply and use tables as well as to assess VAT gaps. The publication shows that the model is relatively simple to apply and its consistency with the supply and use system makes it an attractive tool for policymakers.