Egypt’s tax collection exceeds targets: official

CAIRO – 15 August 2017: Tax collected during fiscal year 2016/17 surpassed initial targets for the first time, Deputy Minister of Finance for tax policies Amr al-Monayer said Monday.

Tax revenues in the previous fiscal year recorded LE 433 billion ($24.37 billion), 30 percent more than FY2015/16, according to official figures.

After ratifying tax disputes’ settlement law, around 4,000 disputes were resolved, bringing LE 2 billion in revenues, Monayer said.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) praised tax collection rate in Egypt and its percentage from the gross domestic product (GDP), Monayer said, highlighting that it increases 1 percent every fiscal year.

“Between 2015 and 2017, taxes contribution in the budget revenues increased from 72 percent to 75 percent,” Monayer said.

Total tax revenues, including income tax, value-added tax (VAT) and property tax, reached LE 240.5 billion ($13.53 billion) in the first nine months of the current fiscal year; LE 239 billion ($16.49 billion) from income tax and VAT, up from LE 187 billion ($10.59 billion) in the corresponding period a year earlier, Monayer said in previous statements.