Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait has assured the business community in Egypt that the government has no intention to impose new taxes on economic activities.
Maait’s remarks came during his participation in the Egyptian Society for Taxation conference, which was held under the title, “Investment and Global Economic Repercussions, and their Impact on the Future Vision of the Tax System”.
Maait said: “We are keen on stabilizing tax policies, despite the harsh global economic challenges, as the consequences of the Coronavirus pandemic are intertwined with the negative effects of the Ukraine war, while emerging economies’ access to international markets has become more difficult in light of the uncertainty related to the war.”
He added that during the next few years, a regular conference will be held with the business community figures to announce the state’s tax policy over the next five years.
Maait affirmed the Finance Ministry’s commitment to the tax path that stimulates local and foreign investments. to move the economy in a sustainable manner; in a way that contributes to achieving high growth rates, which are reflected in laying the foundations for comprehensive and sustainable development, improving the lives of citizens and raising the level of services provided to them, and extending the social protection network while targeting the neediest and most cared groups, explaining that we are continuing to reduce the burden on productive activities; for industrial development and export promotion, with emphasis on priority sectors; to achieve development and economic goals and provide job opportunities, some legislative amendments have been made over the past years to approve more tax facilitations for the industrial and productive community.
He said that there is no intention to impose new taxes on economic activities, and there is no prejudice to the commercial and industrial profits tax rate, pointing out that, in implementation of the presidential directives, a draft law is currently being prepared to end all the old accumulated tax files, based in essence on the philosophy of the Small, Medium and Micro Enterprise Development Law, which covers 60% of the old cases, and there is another scenario for the tax treatment of the remaining 40%.
He added that we do not want to enter into tax disputes with the business community, and we extend our hand to everyone who wants to reconcile in tax files.
He pointed out that digital transformation will remain a fundamental pillar in the path of the Egyptian state. To ensure a more developed tax system comparable to global systems, based on a greater role for artificial intelligence in raising the efficiency of tax collection, and facilitating taxpayers, by simplifying, standardizing and mechanizing procedures, especially since digital systems contributed to increasing tax revenues during the first half of the current financial world at a growth rate Semi-annual approaching 20%, pointing out that the integration of the “electronic bill” system with the “electronic receipt” system contributes to integrating the informal economy, achieving tax justice, and then maximizing the state’s public revenues, creating a financial space to support social development, and mitigate the severity of the wave. global inflationary impact on the poorest citizens.
Maait also confirmed that there are 260,000 companies that have joined the electronic invoice system, and the monthly average of electronic invoices sent has reached 35 million automated documents, stressing that it will not be allowed to deal with any official authorities in the country, or refund the tax or carry out import or export unless for those registered with the electronic bill.
He explained that the legislative structure of the tax system has been developed; in a way that provides legal cover for modernization, mechanization and re-engineering of procedures in a way that gives them legislative authority, taking into account the vision of the business community in each legislation before referring it to the Council of Ministers and then the House of Representatives, by adopting the prior community dialogue methodology; in order to achieve the national interest, stressing that the Unified Tax Procedures Law established a legislative framework that codifies the unified mechanized tax procedures, which have been simplified, merged and digitized, to standardize the procedures for linking and collecting income tax, stamp tax, and value-added tax, in a way that contributes to the availability of services for taxpayers lectronically without the need to go to official offices, by going to the Egyptian Tax Authority’s electronic portal with the unified tax registration number for each of them, which includes all types of taxes subject to it, and making payments electronically using one of the non-cash payment methods.
He said that the new electronic system for preparing and managing the salaries and entitlements of workers, which was applied to 87% of state agencies, with various laws regulating their work; contributes to the standardization and automation of the rules, standards and procedures for calculating the income and insurance tax monthly through the “payroll” system in a way that helps ensure fairness among all employees, fair competition between companies in estimating their expenses, achieving the desired goals of strengthening the governance of the state’s financial system, laying the foundations for transparency, maximizing financial inclusion efforts, and collecting dues from the public treasury.
He indicated that we aim in the fiscal year 2023/2024, despite the unprecedented global economic challenges, to record a growth rate of 5.5% of GDP, to achieve a sustainable primary surplus of about 2% on average, and to put deficit and debt rates on a downward path, pointing to We aim to reduce the budget deficit to 5% levels in the medium term, with a target for the government indebtedness rate to decline to less than 80% of GDP by the end of 2027.
