Collected taxes so far equals 6% from the original due value, announced Osama Tawakol Head of Large Taxpayer Centre (LTC), affiliated to the Tax Authority, in a Sunday statement. Tawakol noted that the tax assessment amounted to EGP 550bn. Meanwhile, the tax revenue collected from disclosure statements amounted to EGP 20bn. With regard to the arbitration cases filed against the government, the head of the state-run body expected the government will lose all of them, after adjusting the number of tax exemptions and after-tax values. The abovementioned statement contradicts the official government statements, as Minister of Finance Hany Kadry Dimian said taxes collected during the first nine months of the fiscal year FY 2014/2015 registered EGP 180bn. This was an increase of 20% compared to the corresponding period the previous year. During this period, the minister added, the collected income taxes increased by 25%, while the sales tax climbed by 30%. The minister added that until 29 April, approximately 353,000 tax reports were filed, increasing by 2% to 3% compared to the same period last year. The government is hoping to collect EGP 549bn in budget revenues in the fiscal year (FY) 2014/15, compared to EGP 569bn in revenues in the previous fiscal year. However, the expenditures' estimate of the current fiscal year is EGP 789bn. The budget deficit is expected to register EGP 240bn, which is equivalent to 10% of GDP. The expected amount of tax revenues to be collected during the FY 2014/2015 had increased to EGP 364bn compared to EGP 358bn last year, representing a 1.6% increase.
