The Fifth Committee of the UN General Assembly decides on the scale of assessments for contributions to the Regular Budget every third year. The scale of assessments reflects a country's capacity to pay (measured by factors such as a country's national income and size of population). The Peacekeeping Budget assessments are based on the Regular Budget rates, but with discounts for poor countries. The five permanent members of the Security Council, who approve all peacekeeping operations, pay extra fees to compensate for those discounts. A "ceiling" rate sets the maximum amount of any member state's assessed share of the regular and Peacekeeping Budgets. The US is the only member that is affected by those ceilings. Consequently the US pays less than its share of the world economy. (There is also a minimum rate of 0.001% to the Regular Budget for poor countries.) In December 2000, the Fifth Committee voted to lower the ceiling rate from 25% to 22% for the Regular Budget. The US had promised to pay its longstanding debt to the UN in exchange for lower assessments. Half a decade later, the US still owes around US$500 million to the UN Regular Budget.
Tables and Charts
-
UN Regular Budget Scale of Assesments for 2009 (December 24, 2008) ST/ADM/SER.B/755
-
UN Regular Budget Scale of Assesments for 2008 (December 24, 2007) ST/ADM/SER.B/719
-
Status of Contributions as at 31 January 2007 (January 31, 2007) ST/ADM/SER.B/709
-
UN Regular Budget Scale of Assessments for 2006 (December 27, 2005) ST/ADM/SER.B/668
-
UN Regular Budget Scale of Assessments for 2005 (December 23, 2004) ST/ADM/SER.B/638
-
UN Regular Budget Scale of Assessments for 2004 (December 24, 2003) ST/ADM/SER.B/612
-
UN Regular Budget Scale of Assessments for 2003 (December 20, 2002) ST/ADM/SER.B/597
-
UN Regular Budget Scale of Assessments for 2002 (December 24, 2001) ST/ADM/SER.B/582
-
UN Regular Budget Scale of Assessments for 2001 (December 26, 2000) ST/ADM/SER.B/568
