Tax relief measures to be effective must be targeted; temporary; carefully timed; aligned with

longer-term environmental, health and social objectives; adapted to specific countries’ needs and
easy to implement (Kimberly Clausing 2020). In short a good tax relief measure designed to
mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 should fulfill the following conditions;
The tax relief measures must be targeted:- Targeted measures, in contrast to blanket measures,
are aimed at providing tax support to specific households and business groups judged to have
been hit the hardest by the pandemic and its economic fallout or which are most crucial to
helping mitigate the impacts of the crisis. Targeted measures are considered by many to be
effective for most affected businesses though they are cost ineffective . Targeted measures that
aim at groups most adversely affected may be more cost-effective. Targeted measures can bolster
the cash-flow of businesses and individuals which in turn could reduce the need to sell assets and
the risk of business failure. Broad-based tax relief measures might result in a loss of huge
revenue and would be less effective than usual given that social distancing measures prevent
people from working and spending normally, and businesses are likely to be particularly risk-
averse (IFS 2020).
Tax relief measures should be temporary:- This means having clear end-dates or tying the
duration of measures to the attainment of certain outcomes (e.g. recovery in certain sectors, a
specified level of employment). (OECD 2021). Making the measures temporary helps encourage
businesses and households to bring their spending and investments forward and limit the impact
on public budgets.
The measures should consider the specific conditions of the country:- A tax measure which
is implemented in a developed country might work for a developing country since the latter will
face tighter constraints on their options, such as more limited fiscal space, larger informal sectors
outside of the tax net and lower administrative capacity (IFS 2020).
.

This might be measures for particular sectors which are hardest hit or which are most crucial to helping
mitigate the impacts of the crisis. Or it may be for particular taxpayer segments such as sub-sets of the
self-employed or small businesses which, in relative terms, may suffer the most from cash-flow issues or
from reporting burdens during this period
(such as bars, restaurants, hotels, retailers and importers/exporters of non-essential products, and
travel services, and those sectors with low profit rates, high fixed costs and high debt levels)

Our preceding discussion of the contours of the tax relief measures provided by selected countries in the
Asia and Pacific region shows that certain jurisdictions, such as the PRC and Indonesia, have used
targeted measures for the hardest-hit sectors along with more broad-based measures