Tax revenues in the first quarter of the financial year 2017/2018 increased 55 percent to to 88.6 billion pounds from 57 billion pounds during the same period of financial year 2016/2017, Egypt's Vice Minister of Finance Amr El-Monayer said, according to Al-Ahram newspaper. A big part of the increase in the quarter's revenues resulted from a rise in revenues from the Value Added Tax (VAT) to 50.7 billion pounds in the first quarter of financial year 2017/2018, compared with 28.3 billion pounds in the same period last year. The increase in VAT revenues came as Egypt raised the tax by 14 percent in the current financial year from 13 percent last financial year. The first quarter's VAT collections exceeded targeted revenues by three percent. The oil sector's VAT collections saw the biggest increase, with a 520 percent year-on-year surge compared to last financial year. Egypt aims to narrow its budget deficit to 9.1 percent of GDP by the end of financial year 2017/2018, according to the state budget, compared with 10.9 percent of GDP last year. The World Bank expects Egypt's budget deficit to decrease to 8.8 percent of GDP within the financial year 2017/2018, driven by an increase in tax revenues, in addition to the energy subsidies reform, according to a report published last week. Income tax collections for the first quarter of the current fiscal year also increased 36 percent to 21.76 billion pounds in the first quarter of financial year 2017/2018. Tax collections from state institutions such as the Central Bank of Egypt, the Suez Canal Authority, and the Egyptian General Petroleum Company reached 16 billion pounds, up from 13 billion pounds in the first quarter of last financial year. Real estate tax revenues increased to 804 million pounds in the first quarter of the current financial year, compared with 469 million pounds last year. Tax revenues for financial year 2016/2017 increased by 31.8 percent to 464.4 billion pounds, compared to 352.3 billion pounds the year before, Finance Minister Amr El-Garhy said earlier this month. Source: Ahram online
