Parliament nods agricultural land tax suspension

CAIRO – 3 July 2017: Egypt’s Parliament approved Monday suspension of Law 11.1939, which imposed taxes on agriculture lands, for three years, the Parliament said in a statement.

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi announced new social security measures in late June, pushing the FY2017/2018 budget to LE 1.2 trillion ($4.1 billion).

The decisions included freezing agricultural land tax for three years.

Under the new decisions, an individual's share from a ration card would be increased from LE 21 ($1.16) to LE 50 ($2.76), increasing allocations of food subsidies in the budget from LE 47 billion to LE 85 billion in FY2016/2017.

A 15 percent hike in the value of pensions for elderly citizens was also announced, costing the budget another LE 23-24 billion and elevating the contribution of the pensions and social insurance in the budget to LE 190 billion.

Allocations for the Ministry of Social Solidarity’s program for the poor, “Takaful and Karama’s,” will increase by LE 2 billion to meet a LE 100 surge in the share of each beneficiary, making the total value borne by the government for the program LE 8.36 billion.