The government is expected to collect EGP 35bn from applying the value-added tax (VAT) in fiscal year (FY) 2016/2017, Minister of Finance’s adviser for taxes Amr El-Moneir told Daily News Egypt.
The application of the VAT is contingent on the approval of the parliament.
Consideration of the VAT has been intertwined with discussions of the World Bank’s $1bn loan to Egypt. Media reports have speculated that the introduction of the VAT is one of the conditions imposed by the international lending agency for the deployment of the money. However, officials have not announced the conditions of the loan.
However, El-Moneir claimed that there has not been any pressure from outside of Egypt to impose the tax, a move that if taken would undermine the financial sovereignty of the country.
“They [the World Bank] know that we are preparing the law and that there is a need for it to be applied,” he added. “We will apply it because we want to apply it.”
