The ratio of tax revenues that contribute to the supply of budget revenues increased during the first four months of the current fiscal year to be 78 per cent compared with 75 per cent in the last fiscal year of 2020-2021, according to an official statement issued by the Egyptian Ministry of Finance.

The total revenues of the state’s general budget reached EGP 311.3 billion, including EGP 245.2 billion of tax receipts, which records an annual growth ratio of 14.7 per cent in addition to sovereign tax increases at 62 per cent and 7.4 per cent for non-sovereign taxes.  While non-tax receipts recorded EGP 66.2 billion at the ratio of 21.2 per cent.

Over the above-mentioned months, the budget revenues achieved an 8.4 per cent growth rate able to be increased within the expenditures to be 16.6 per cent which equals EGP 530.7 billion. It’s attributed to the increase of domestic and foreign debts and social expenditures. According to the ministry’s report, interest expenditures amounted to a 22 per cent increase, recording EGP 215 billion, including EGP 199 billion domestic interests, and EGP 16 billion are foreign interests.

The total budget deficit during this period also increased to 3.07 per cent, recording EGP 219.812 billion, compared with 2.68 per cent, or EGP 171.372 billion, compared to the same period of the last fiscal year, because of the widening gap between revenues and expenditures. Last week, the Egyptian Minister of Finance, Mohamed Maait, stated that total revenues of the final balance of the state’s general budget for the fiscal year 2020-2021 amounted to EGP 1.1 trillion including EGP 834 billion in tax revenues, representing 75 per cent of public revenues, an increase of EGP 97 billion compared to the outcome of the fiscal year 2019- 2020, amounting to EGP 736.9 billion.

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights issued an analytical report about the budget of the fiscal year 2021/2022. The report indicated that a great share of the state’s general budget is allocated for the payment of debts and interests which deprive the people of benefiting from their money to improve their conditions during the surrounding crises.

According to the new state’s general budget approved by the Egyptian parliament, the total due debts’ installments and interests of the new fiscal year are EGP 1.172 trillion. It’s calculated based on the estimation of the due interests of domestic and foreign debts at EGP 579.6 billion. On the other hand, the state’s budget is targeting the increase of general state revenues to be EGP 1.365 trillion, including EGP 983.1 billion of tax revenues. It should be mentioned that the public state expenditures on subsidies in the new budget, especially the family items such as health and medical insurance, have been relatively decreased despite the persistence of the coronavirus pandemic. Also, the petroleum subsidies directed to the family sector decreased from EGP 5.6 billion to EGP 3.7 billion, according to the initiative’s calculations while support and grants directed to government agencies increased by seven per cent.