MYANMAR

On 1 February 2021, the military staged a coup d’état and declared a one-year state of emergency, handing the power over to the commander-in-chief who also assumed the roles of chairman of the State Administration Council and of prime minister. The information in this country profile is based upon the legislation and state of affairs prior to the coup.

The 2008 Constitution of Myanmar was adopted by the military government, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), in September 2008. Myanmar is a unitary parliamentary republic with the president as the head of state. At the Union level (national level), there is a bicameral parliament called Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Assembly of the Union) comprising a 440-seat Pyithu Hluttaw (House of Representatives) and a 224-seat Amyotha Hluttaw (House of Nationalities) and the legislative power is shared between two houses. Three-quarters of the seats in the parliaments are directly elected while the remainder is reserved for military appointees. The president, the head of the executive branch, is accountable to the parliament. The duration of the legislature, the president and the cabinet terms are of five years.

The country has a one-tier subnational government system that consists of the region/state level. Myanmar’s territorial administrative system is made of seven states, seven regions, five self-administered zone, one self-administered division and the Union Territory. Under the basic principles of the 2008 Constitution, the seven states and seven regions are of equal status. The sovereign power is separated into legislative, executive, and judicial branches exerting reciprocal control, check and balance among themselves. Those three branches of power are shared among Union, regions, states and self-administered areas. The subnational parliaments are unicameral and partially elected with 25% of the seats reserved for military appointees. The region/state level executive branch is led by a chief minister appointed by the president. The governance at the local level is a complex arrangement with strong Union involvement in the administration and its relationship with subnational governments at the local level is not clearly defined. Most parts of the administration at the different levels of government are carried out by the deconcentrated departments of the Union ministries.

State/region governments are new institutions created under the 2008 Constitution, which assigned them some powers and responsibilities. Myanmar has been a highly centralised country since its independence in 1948 therefore formation of fourteen regions/states governments with executives, legislatures, and judiciaries under the 2008 Constitution was a significant step towards decentralisation.

In 2010, the SPDC passed the Region or State Government Law to provide further details on the subnational executive. Other statutes such as the Region and State Hluttaw Law (2013), and the Ward or Village Tract Administration Law (2012), which had subsequent amendments in 2016, also determined the decentralisation framework. Schedule II of the 2008 Constitution laid out the legislative and administrative responsibilities of subnational governments while Schedule V outlined the revenues that regions/states could collect. At the end of their term in 2015, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) government amended the constitution and expanded Schedules II and V. During the National League for Democracy (NLD) government era, institutional reforms were initiated to further the decentralisation process and prepare for a federal state.

TERRITORIAL ORGANISATION
MUNICIPAL LEVEL	INTERMEDIATE LEVEL	REGIONAL LEVEL	TOTAL NUMBER OF SNGs (2021)
		14 (7 regions + 7 states) (Tinedaythagyi/Pyinae)
		Average region/state size: 3 886 429 inh.
		14	14

OVERALL DESCRIPTION: Region/state governments are the only decentralised level of subnational government, besides the Union level. However, the formal territorial administration structure is divided into four territorial levels: 1) regions/states; 2) districts; 3) townships; and 4) wards/village-tracts. Based on criteria such as population, economic factors and area, some districts also have sub-townships.

The constitution created other territorial organisations such as the Union Territory, Self-Administered Zones (SAZs) and Self-Administered Division (SAD) with special governance arrangements that differ from the regions/states. The Union Territory, Nay Pyi Taw, is under the direct administration of the president. The SAZs and SAD are governed by the leading body, to which the Constitution also allotted the legislative power. Schedule III of the 2008 Constitution stipulated leading bodies’ legislation. The list included ten areas that were limited in nature compared to the legislative list of the regions/states. The SAZs/SAD judicial courts are under the supervision of the High Court of the respective region/state.

REGIONAL LEVEL: Regions and states are second-tier governments and constitutionally equivalent. Section 2 of the Region or State Government Law (2010) laid out the structure and the composition of the government at the subnational level, which is normally made of a chief minister, five to 10 region/state ministers, plus ethnic affairs ministers and chairpersons of self-administered areas as relevant. There is an exception for Yangon and Mandalay in terms of assigning roles to region/state ministers. In those two regions, one of the ministers is also assigned as a mayor, on top of their usual ministerial assignment, and leads the development committees of the capital cities in those regions. The Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) and Mandalay City Development Committee (MCDC) are responsible for providing municipal services in those two cities and they raise their own revenues through taxes and fees collection. In other regions/states, development affairs organisations (DAOs) are lesser equivalences of YCDC and MCDC and are also responsible for providing municipal services, but they have a different structure and lesser mandate and authority compared to YCDC and MCDC. The region/state department of development affairs, which oversees the works of DAOs, is the only fully decentralised body that is exclusively accountable to the region/state governments. All other government departments at the region/state, district and townships levels are under the oversight of the Union ministries, which have significant authority in regulations, procedures, and staffing. Depending on Schedule I and II responsibilities of the Constitution, the region/state ministers play two sets of roles in relation to the departments, which have more accountability towards the region/state governments in one category than the other.

The regions are inhabited mostly by the ethnic Bamar majority whereas the states are populated by the other ethnic minorities. In general, the regions are in the lowland areas and have a higher population than the states, most of which are in hilly borderland areas of the country. Nearly 40% of the country’s 51.5 million population lives in three regions – Yangon (14%), Ayeyarwaddy (12%) and Mandalay (12%) – while Kayah State (0.6%) and Chin State (0.9%) have the lowest population. Shan State and Sagaing Region are the largest in size, making up 23 % and 14 % of the land area respectively.

STATE TERRITORIAL ADMINISTRATION: The administration and governance below the region/state level are managed by the deconcentrated departments of the Union ministries. Administratively, the territorial level under the region/state is called “district”, of which there are 74 in Myanmar. Shan State has the highest number with 15 districts while Kayah, Mon and Nay Pyi Taw are the lowest with two districts each. Generally, the district level departments take more of a vertical coordination role and supervise the lower levels. According to the Article 288 of the Constitution, the administration of district and townships is assigned to the civil services personnel while the ward/village-tract level is administered by members of the community.

Just like the districts, local governance at the township level is also managed by the deconcentrated offices of the Union ministries, except for the development affairs organisations. There is a total of 330 townships in Myanmar and the number in each region/state varies, ranging from as few as seven in Kayah and Kayin States to as many as 55 in Shan State. Township populations also have wide variations, with the highest from around 680 000 to the lowest around 1 700. The townships in the urban areas break down into wards while in rural areas, they break down into village-tracts, which in turn break down into villages. The local administration in Myanmar is carried out by the Union ministry branches of government departments and the lowest level administration offices can be found at the township level. Many key governance functions such as civil, land and vehicle registrations, tendering and procurement, school management, tax and fees collection take place at the township level. Some other basic public services including education, health services, administration, and policing are extended to the sub-township, village-track, and village levels.

HORIZONTAL COOPERATION: Interstate horizontal cooperation is institutionalised in neither the executive nor legislative branches. The General Administration Department (GAD) plays a fundamental role in horizontal coordination and communication at all levels of subnational government. Article 260 of the Constitution set out that the head of the GAD is the ex-officio executive secretary of the region/state government while the Region or State Government Law (2010) established the GAD as the administration for the region/state governments. As there are no physical ministries at the region/state level, the region/state ministers have no staff or departments of their own. Therefore, the GAD staff support them by acting as the conduit between the ministers and their relevant departments. Arrays of committees exist at the district and township levels to manage, coordinate, and implement government services and policies. Such committees are usually chaired by the district and township administrators. GAD administrators play a central role in coordination and bringing different government departments together at all levels of subnational governance.

The 2008 Constitution is the key legislative document that allocates responsibilities between the two levels of government. Schedules I and II of the Constitution were dedicated for legislative and administrative responsibilities of the Union and region/state governments respectively but did not provide complete clarity due to the lack of explicit details. Schedule V outlines the revenues collected by region/state governments. The 2015 constitutional amendment expanded the Schedules II and V and it provided additional powers in each of the sectors contained in Schedule II. Most of the additions have the condition “in accord with the law enacted by the Union” attached even though the relevant or more comprehensive law may not already exist at the Union level. There is an emerging custom of region/state governments deferring to the Union government to interpret and delineate the respective responsibilities laid out under the Constitution. In some sectors, expenditure responsibilities are based on the rules and regulations of the Union ministries and on existing practices. The lack of clarity around the responsibilities resulted in uncertainty of exact functions of the subnational governments.

The municipal services are the exclusive responsibility of region/state governments and funded entirely by them. They oversee local economic governance and issue licenses and permits to local businesses and their services range from urban water, sewage, garbage collection, roads, and bridges to street lighting and drainage. The specific functions of YCDC, MCDC and DAOs are set out in their respective region/state development affairs laws.

Main responsibility sectors and sub-sectors
SECTORS AND SUB-SECTORS	Regional level
1. General public services (administration)	Municipal development; Management of the property of region/state; Management of cemeteries and funeral services
2. Public order and safety	Preventive and precautionary measures against fire and natural disaster
3. Economic affairs / transports	Construction and maintenance of urban roads and bridges that provided right to be managed by region/state; Ports, jetties, and pontoons that provided right to be managed by region/state; Agriculture and livestock breeding, agricultural research, pests and disease control that have right to be undertaken by region/state; Waterways maintenance, dams, embankments, lakes, drains and irrigation works that provided right to be managed by region/state; Fresh water fisheries; and inshore fisheries that have the right to be undertaken by region/state; Medium and small-scale electric power production and distribution that provided the right to be managed by region/state and that do not have any link to national power grid; Small-scale mining and small-scale and manual laboured gem enterprises that has the right to be undertaken by region/state; Cottage industryTourism, hotel and lodging house industries that have the right to be undertaken by region/state
4. Environment protection	Environmental protection and preservation of wildlife, plants and wild areas within the rights of region/state; Land management; Water resource development; Waste management, sewerage and street cleaning
5. Housing and community amenities	Town and housing development; Urban housing management, urban water supply and street lightings
6. Health	Matters on traditional medicine that are not contrary to policies prescribed by the Union; Charitable hospitals and clinics, private hospitals and clinics that have right to be managed by region/state
7. Culture & Recreation	Preservation of cultural heritage that provided right to be managed by region/state; Libraries and museums that provided right to be managed by region/state; Recreation centers, zoological garden and botanical gardens
8. Education	Management of basic education schools that have the right to be undertaken by region/state
9. Social Welfare	Social welfare works within region/state; Care for children, youths, women, disabled and aged according to the right to undertake by region/state

Scope of fiscal data: 14 states and regions fund accounts

SNA 1968

Availability of fiscal data: Medium

Quality/reliability of fiscal data: Medium

GENERAL INTRODUCTION: Region/state governments started to have their own budgets in 2012, along with further political decentralisation. The 2008 Constitution laid out the broad, sometimes unclear, parameters that determined the responsibilities and resources of subnational governments. The 2015 constitutional amendment added legislative and expenditure responsibilities for subnational governments, but it had no immediate impact on fiscal decentralisation as the amendment act required subsequent changes in the existing Union laws. Since 2015, there has been a significant increase in region/state government expenditure and their spending is becoming more diverse. However, subnational revenue growth is mainly due to the Union fiscal transfer and subnational governments’ own-source revenues have not grown much. Subnational planning and budgeting processes have become more responsive and accountable. The progression of fiscal decentralisation is affected by the limitations of administrative decentralisation at the subnational level.

Subnational government expenditure by economic classification
2020	Dollars PPP / inhabitant	% GDP	% general government	% subnational government
Total expenditure	149	2.9%	15.7%	100.0%
Inc. current expenditure	45	0.9%	7.6%	29.9%
Compensation of employees	15.	0.3%	9.4%	10.0%
Intermediate consumption	28	0.6%	18.5%	18.8%
Social expenditure	1	0.0%	1.2%	0.3%
Subsidies and current transfers	-	-	-	-
Financial charges	-	-	-	-
Others	1	0.0%	7.4%	0.8%
Incl. capital expenditure	105	2.0%	28.8%	70.1%
Capital transfers	-	-	-	-
Direct investment (or GFCF)	-	-	-	-

EXPENDITURE: Since their first budgets in 2012-13, subnational spending has tripled. This increase was mainly driven by the increase in Union transfers, which became 80% of total subnational revenue. Between 2012-13 and 2019-20, subnational government expenditure grew not only in size but also its share in general government expenditure. However, total subnational government expenditure in 2019-2020 was only 2.9% of the GDP, which is low compared to neighbouring countries, such as Thailand (4.04 % of GDP in 2019).

Since 2015, Myanmar applied a rule-based formula for Union grant transfer under its medium-term fiscal framework (MTFF), which imposes greater stability in the resources available to subnational governments. Consequently, the volume of subnational expenditure and its proportion in total government expenditure stabilised. Capital expenditure accounts for a large portion of subnational budgets, but there are variations across different regions/states. The share of capital spending in subnational budgets may be underreported due to inconsistent budget classifications and categorisation.

DIRECT INVESTMENT: The growth in capital expenditure reflects subnational governments’ increased prioritisation of infrastructure development, especially in roads, housings, urban infrastructure and small electrification projects. The share of capital expenditure in subnational budgets surged significantly from 23% in 2012 to 70 % in 2019-20.

Generally, the increased rate of capital expenditure is more pronounced in the states than in the regions, meaning the need for infrastructure spending is higher in historically poor border areas. The state governments’ 2019-2020 capital expenditure accounted for 75% of their total expenditure, six times higher than the amount in 2012-13. The share of the regions’ capital expenditure was 67% in 2019-2020 and it increased two-fold in the period from 2012 to 2020.

There is no public-private partnership (PPP) law in Myanmar yet. In an attempt to improve public investment management, the central government established the Project Bank platform and the president’s office issued the Project Bank Notification in 2018, which includes provisions related to PPP projects. The PPP Center was also established under the Ministry of Planning, Finance and Industry to strengthen the Union agencies and subnational governments in PPP capabilities and to identify, develop, procure, implement, monitor, and audit PPPs.

Subnational government expenditure by functional classification
2020	Dollars PPP / inhabitant	% GDP	% general government	% subnational government
Total expenditure by economic function	149	3.0%	-	100.0%
1. General public services	39	0.8%	13.8%	25.9%
2. Defence	-	-	-	-
3. Security and public order	5	0.1%	15.1%	3.1%
4. Economic affairs/transports	60	1.2%	29.8%	40.1%
5. Environmental protection	0.3	0.0%	4.9%	0.2%
6. Housing and community amenities	44	0.9%	83.4%	29.6%
7. Health	-	-	-	-
8. Recreation, culture and religion	2	0.0%	15.7%	1.1%
9. Education	-	-	-	-
10. Social protection	-	-	-	-

Most subnational government expenditure is spent on road and electricity infrastructure, to compensate for the insufficient investment in the earlier periods and because those are the prioritised sectors of the Union government. Shifting some expenditure assignments on rural roads to subnational governments also inflated road sector spending from subnational budgets. Significant shares of public services expenditure are on salary and miscellaneous expenditure of subnational cabinet offices, sometimes on central government responsibilities.

Health and education expenditure are budgeted under the Union government account and subnational governments work through the vertical deconcentrated subnational offices of the Union ministries in these sectors. Subnational governments have limited discretionary power on staff management and on small expenses, such as procuring school uniforms or textbooks.

Subnational government revenue by category
2020	Dollars PPP / inhabitant	% GDP	% general government	% subnational government
Total revenue	147	2.8%	28.3%	100%
Tax revenue	6	0.1%	1.8%	4.0%
Grants and subsidies	114	2.2%	-	77.6%
Tariffs and fees	1	0.0%	-	0.7%
Income from assets	26	0.5%	-	17.7%
Other revenues	-	-	-	-

OVERALL DESCRIPTION: States and regions are provisioned to collect both taxes and non-tax revenues within the mandates under Schedule V of the 2008 Constitution. However, not all Schedule V taxes and other revenues are easily identifiable in subnational budgets and some revenue sources, such as excise tax, are still budgeted under the Union. The 2015 Constitutional Amendment enabled more revenue potential for the subnational governments and acted as a placeholder for required subsequent changes to the Union taxation laws and devolution to the local revenue authorities. However, there was no concrete action taken in place for exploring the potential.

Fiscal transfers from the Union government are significant in subnational fiscal decentralisation as revenue collection remains centralised. The Union transfers, which comprised grant transfer, tax sharing and constituency development funding, accounted for more than 75%of subnational budgets.

TAX REVENUE: Under the given revenue assignments, subnational governments collect eight taxes - wheel tax, property tax, excise tax, mineral tax, land tax, water and embankment tax, forest tax and fishery tax. Some of these taxes actually function more as license fees for running particular business activities than as taxes.

Subnational tax administration is fragmented under four Union government departments. The General Administration Department (GAD) collects excise, land, mineral, and embankment taxes, while the Fishery Department and the Forest Department handle the tax on fisheries and forest respectively. Excise tax is collected under the narrowly defined tax base of the annual license fees for selling liquor products and retail businesses. It accounts for about 20% of the subnational tax collection. Subnational governments’ two main taxes – the wheel tax and property tax - are administered by the city development committees and the development affairs organisations. The property tax is collected from the urban house owners/occupiers, generally twice a year, based on an estimate of the property’s value. The property tax at the subnational level is regarded as the charges that the urban residents pay for the benefit of receiving municipal services such as urban roads, street lighting and street cleaning. The property tax collected by the municipalities is different from the transfer of rights in the properties by the Union government and from the other taxes and charges levied on the property - such as stamp duties and capital gain tax. Although the property tax is the major source of revenue for subnational governments, it is underperforming as the significant share of urban properties are not recorded in the tax base. Additionally, the property tax administration system has been slow to respond and is in need of reform. The wheel tax is levied on the vehicles at the registration stage as road user charges. In 2019-20, property and wheel taxes compose 20 and 45% of total subnational taxes respectively.

Although there is greater autonomy for the subnational governments on constitutionally assigned taxes, it is unclear how they exercise discretion over tax rates and bases. While fully devolved Yangon and Mandalay city development committees (CDCs) could make changes to the wheel tax, the changes to some other taxes in the taxation laws are stalled at the Union level waiting for the Union-led approach. A major part of subnational governments’ own-source revenue comes from the non-tax revenues. Yangon and Mandalay have the highest rate of own-source revenue collection, representing 70% of overall subnational OSR. YCDC, MCDC and DAOs are subnational governments only fully devolved entities making major revenue from geographically immobile sources. Yangon and Mandalay finance half of their budgets from these collections, while other regions/states could only cover less than 10%.

GRANTS AND SUBSIDIES: Transfers from the central government account for 75% of total subnational government revenue. They comprise grant transfer (60% of transfers), tax sharing and constituency development fund. In the least developed states, such as Chin and Kayah, the different Union government transfers finance over 95% of their respective budgets.

General grant is the largest fiscal transfer, accounting for 85% of all Union transfers and two-thirds of total subnational expenditure. As part of the MTFF reforms, the grant transfer has changed from deficit-financing based on negotiation to formula-based mechanism. The grant transfer allocation for each region/state is calculated based on six equal-weighted indicators - population, land area, poverty index, per capita GDP, per capita subnational tax revenue and urban population. However, since the formula is applied only on the new funds added to the grant transfer pool to maintain the stability of the subnational fiscal landscape, it has more impact on the predictability and stability of available fiscal than narrowing the horizontal equity between subnational governments.

Around 10% of subnational revenue comes from Union tax sharing. Out of the taxes collected from the private and cooperative sectors, the Union's Internal Revenue Department shares 15% of commercial tax revenue, 15% of special goods tax revenue, 5% of income tax revenue and 2% of stamp duty revenue back to the tax origins. For commercial and special good taxes collected from the public sector, the revenue is shared with regions/states based on the formula used for allocating grant transfer.

From the constituency development fund, established by the 2014 Union Development Funds Law, each township in Myanmar receives Ks 100 million (~USD 250 000 PPP) per budget year. These funds are controlled by the region/state parliament members and typically utilised for small infrastructure projects in the community. Starting from 2019-20, the Union government also provides Ks 1 billion (~USD 2.5 million PPP) reserve budget per region/state to spend in times of unprecedented cases and prevention and relief measures for natural disasters.

OTHER REVENUE: Non-tax current revenue accounts for a major part of own-source revenue and is about two times higher than tax revenue in subnational budgets. It is mainly raised by CDCs and municipal organisations from the municipal auction licenses and fees on commercial activities in the urban area. Non-tax current revenue collected by these organisations is approximately 85% of total non-tax current revenue and over 60% is raised in Yangon and Mandalay regions. Subnational governments also receive other capital revenues from the one-off sale of state-owned assets and from the foreign grants on capital projects.

ⓘ No detailed data available for this country

FISCAL RULES: The Minister of Planning, Finance and Industry (MOPFI) has overall responsibility for supervision of public finance management for all levels of government. The authority of region/state governments on budget re-appropriation is outlined under Article 55 of the MOPFI’s 2017 Financial Management Regulation document. According to the document, the budgets are on an annual basis and both Union and region/state level governments must surrender any funds that are not spent during the specific financial year. The fiscal rules and procedures related to the funds in excess of expenditure are laid out under Articles 58 and 60.

Subnational budget and planning departments are mainly responsible for assessing budget proposals for consistency, accuracy and compliance with the laws and regulations, and for ascertaining capital investment proposals to reflect the expenditure provisions already made in the five-year plan. Subnational government budgets, especially the expenditure side, are audited by both the internal audit teams and the Auditor General Office. They are also subjected to legislative scrutiny from the public account committees of region/state parliaments.

DEBT: According to the Constitution and the Public Debt Management Law, region/state governments are not allowed to borrow directly, either domestically or internationally. However, Article 61 of 2017 Regulations on Financial Management outlines that subnational governments can take grants and loans from the Union fund in accordance with the Constitution. The Union Ministry of Planning, Finance and Industry, on behalf of the national government, can provide on-lending from abroad to subnational governments and city development committees (CDCs)/municipalities. This process requires the approval from the Union government and parliament and the subnational borrowing has to be included in their budget proposals to the respective parliament. The medium-term debt management strategy, that covers both Union and subnational government debt, has to be enacted every year including the projections for at least three upcoming fiscal years, and approved by the legislature.

According to the annual government debt report for 2019-20, Yangon City Development Committee and Mandalay City Development Committee have received foreign loans, from various bilateral and multilateral agencies, valued at USD 1.2 billion and USD 107 million respectively and the sum represents about 12% of the country’s total foreign loan.

TERRITORIAL MANAGEMENT OF THE CRISIS: Reflecting the centralised system of government and narrow functional assignments given to the subnational governments, central government plays a vital role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as mitigating its economic and social impacts. The Union government developed and launched the COVID-19 Economic Relief Plan (CERP) in April 2020, together with the other sectoral plans such as Tourism Sector Relief Plan and Cash for Work Programme for landless farmers to respond to the economic consequences of the pandemic.

The core CERP assigns subnational governments as the responsible entities, together with the Union Ministry of Health, in mitigating the consequences especially in frontline healthcare service provisions and access to clean water. Subnational governments have also taken emergency measures such as food security, internal and border trade facilitation as well as coordination and communication with the Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs) to prevent and control the spread of the virus in areas under their control.

EMERGENCY MEASURES TO COPE WITH THE CRISIS AT THE DIFFERENT LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT: Subnational governments facilitated the disbursement of the central government’s loans to SMEs and subsidies to the vulnerable households.

IMPACTS OF THE CRISIS ON SUBNATIONAL GOVERNMENT FINANCE: The crisis impacted subnational governments’ own-source revenue. After the first laboratory case was detected in late March 2020 and alongside the enforcement of lockdowns, many business activities were suspended. Consequently, the subnational revenue, especially the income of CDCs and municipal organisations decreased due to the decline in economic activities and travel restrictions. If the grant transfer received from the Union is factored out, it is estimated that subnational governments’ current revenue, (i.e., own-source revenue excluding capital and financial receipts), experienced a double-digit decline in the third and fourth quarter of 2019-20. In the fourth quarter, seven regions and states recorded drops in their current revenue by over 40%.

In order to provide a swift and timely pandemic response, the 2019-20 Fiscal Year Union Budget Law allocated a total of 14 billion Myanmar Kyat (~USD 34 million PPP) earmarked as contingency reserves for the subnational governments, at a share of K 1 billion (~USD 2.5 million PPP) for each region/state. The Ministry of Planning, Finance and Industry, and other Union line ministries/entities received Ks 50 billion (~USD 122 million PPP) and Ks 36 billion (~USD 88 million PPP) allocations respectively. However, in the last two quarters of the fiscal year, subnational governments spent less than 1% of their budgets for the COVID-19 related expenses and for the activities under the CERP as the key responsible departments for COVID-19 prevention and control are budgeted under the Union government.

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL STIMULUS PLANS: The Union-led COVID-19 Economic Relief Plan (CERP) consists of seven goals, 10 strategies, 36 action plans and 76 actions that encompass the combination of fiscal, monetary, trade and investments policies. The CERP outlines the roles of the line ministries and subnational governments and cross-government responses. According to the plan, region/states are responsible for collaborating with the Union’s Ministry of Health and Sports in providing quarantine centers and facilities, including the required medical staff and equipment, and implementing preventive measures.

The central government was in the process of drafting the Myanmar Economic Resilience and Reform Plan (MERRP) prior to the 1 February coup.