Egypt to complete electronic state budget system within days: El-Garhy

Egyptian-French cooperation to implement new health insurance law, says minister of finance

Minister of Finance Amr El-Garhy said that the ministry will complete an electronic system for the state budget, establishing a unified treasury account at the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), and closing all other sub-accounts through the implementation of the Government Fiscal Management Information System (GFMIS) this March, in cooperation with the company e-finance for financial and banking services.
In addition, the ministry is cancelling paper cheques and working through electronic payment orders.
This came during the meeting of the minister of finance with the members of a French mission, which includes a group of French companies working in the fields of electronic services and banking.
During the meeting, El-Garhy also reviewed the features of the new Comprehensive Health Insurance Law that is being implemented in Port Said and discussed ways of cooperation between the ministry and the Mouvement des Entreprises de France (MEDEF) mission to develop the technological and electronic system for this law to be applied across all of Egypt's governorates.
For their part, the members of the French mission assured the possibility of cooperation to implement the health insurance system.
The minister pointed out that it is planned to cooperate with the mission to develop and disseminate electronic systems in all sectors of the state, and to improve the competencies of those working on the use and implementation of these technological and digital systems.
Moreover, El-Garhy said that the ministry has also completed the system for the Egyptian Tax Authority to activate the service of filing tax returns electronically for taxpayers and gradually shift from paper tax forms to electronic ones and proceed with the application of an integrated electronic payment system instead of cash, using smart cards to enhance the financial inclusion process.
"We aim to benefit from the information and communication technology in the provisions of the tax system and the generalisation of the completion of tax payments through electronic devices and mobile services, in addition to the full transformation of the daily financial processes to become electronic," El-Garhy said.
He added that his ministry is currently working on preparing a simplified system of tax and legislative procedures for small, medium, and microenterprises.
Earlier in August, the minister stressed that the new electronic system is a necessity at the present time to support the process of financial and economic reform, which will help reduce the state budget deficit and allow the high efficiency management of public debt.
Furthermore, the electronic system will provide accurate financial information for decision-makers at the level of financial institutions, in particular, or at the state level in general, which helps to maximise resources and wise exploitation of public expenditure to keep up with other countries.