Egypt Watch

Egypt’s tax arrears amount to EGP 234 billion

Reda Abdel Qader, head of the Egyptian Tax Authority, has said that the balance of tax arrears in Egypt amounted to EGP 234 billion ($15 million) last December 31, including EGP 203 billion ($13 billion) of income taxes and EGP 31 billion ($2 billion) of value-added taxes, pointing out that the value of the undisputed and unrecoverable taxes amounted to EGP 33.4 billion ($2.1 billion) on December 31, 2019. He added that these taxes include EGP 28.8 billion ($1.8 billion) due on state bodies and press institutions, pointing out that the authority cannot take any measures against them, noting that the minister of finance discussed the problem with the prime minister.

Deputy Mustafa Salem, undersecretary of the plan and budget committee, asked to discuss the tax arrears and the plan for how these funds will be collected. Tax revenue amounted to EGP 660 billion ($42 billion) during the past fiscal year (2018-2019), compared to EGP 566 billion ($36 billion) in 2017-2018, and the government aims to increase this year to EGP 770 billion ($49 billion), which represents 78 per cent of the total state budget.