The junta’s Ministry of Planning and Finance announced that healthcare professionals working for private companies would have to pay an extra 2 per cent in tax from 1 September.

A directive issued on 25 August said that an extra 2 per cent of income tax must be deducted from the wages of healthcare professionals at private healthcare providers. The tax must be paid within 15 days of patients paying the provider for the healthcare professional’s service.

The healthcare professionals who will have to pay the new 2 per cent tax include medical doctors, nurses, midwives, medical technicians and others registered with the Myanmar Medical Council, the Dental and Oral Medical Council, and the Nurse and Midwife Council.

Some commenters speculated that the junta was introducing the new tax because its tax receipts are dwindling and to check how much healthcare professionals in the private sector are earning and what organisations are employing them.

They also said that the new tax would probably mean increased prices for patients as the private healthcare facilities will more than likely pass on the extra cost of the tax to their patients.

According to the junta’s Ministry of Health, there are currently hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers working in the private health sector in Myanmar.

Following the February 2021 coup, many medical professionals working at public hospitals joined the Civil Defence Movement (CDM) and left their workplaces. This has led to a shortage of staff at public hospitals and health clinics.