Singapore lags peers in using green tax

It was ranked 14th out of 21.

Governments around the world are increasingly using tax as a tool to achieve green policy goals and make corporate behavior more sustainable, according to KPMG’s Green Tax Index which was recently launched.

The United States of America, Japan, United Kingdom, France, South Korea and China are the most active in using tax as a tool to drive sustainable corporate behavior and achieve green policy goals.

Singapore is ranked as the 14 tax system weighted towards incentives rather than penalties.

This finding is contained in KPMG’s first Green Tax Index, which considers how governments are using their tax systems to respond to global challenges including energy security, water and resource scarcity, pollution and climate change. It analyses green tax incentives and penalties in 21 countries, focusing on key policy areas such as energy efficiency, water efficiency, carbon emissions, greeninnovation and green buildings.

The report identified over 200 individual tax incentives and penalties of relevance to corporate sustainability. At least 30 new green tax incentives, penalties or significant regulation changes have been introduced in the countries since January 2011.