CAIRO: Egypt's Minister of Finance Youssef Boutros Ghali announced that the total proceeds of general taxation on income and sales tax reached 148 billion Egyptian pounds during the fiscal year 2009/2010, up 8.1 billion pounds compared to the previous year, despite the global financial crisis effects on the national economy. The minister said at a press conference on Sunday that income tax revenue amounted to 92.3 billion pounds compared to 89.4 billion a year earlier, up 2.9 billion pounds, exceeding the target by 28 percent. He added that sales tax revenues reached 55.7 billion pounds, up five billion from the previous year and 11 percent in excess of the target the government had set. Ghali added that the increase in tax revenues confirms the “success of the package of fiscal policies adopted by the government to address the global crisis to motivate and stimulate the local economy and ensure the continued positive growth rates and the success of economic reform policies.” He continued to say that “the fiscal policies adopted by the government succeeded in maintaining the proportion of the budget deficit to less than 8.3 percent during the past three years, to achieve and maintain positive growth rates, in which many of the European economies, failed to achieve.” The minister pointed out that most economic sectors witnessed a growth in tax revenues, payroll taxes, which achieved 9.7 billion pounds, up 19 percent compared to the previous year and taxes on commercial activity scored 4.8 billion pounds, up 2 percent compared to the previous year, while the sales tax on imported goods scored the highest higher value of the outcome of 18.8 billion pounds. ** Reporting by Mohamed Abdel Salam BM
