Parliament asks for three-month report on tax disputes

Tax disputes referred to judiciary are about 150,000, including appeals against income, sales taxation, VAT, stamp duties

Parliament's planning and budget committee demanded the Egyptian Tax Authority to provide a detailed report every three months on the status of the authority's tax disputes.
Mervat Elksan, a member of the committee, said that she held a meeting with the tax authority's head, Emad Samy, to discuss the tax disputes referred to the Egyptian judiciary and how to settle them in a bid to increase tax revenues in the coming period.
Yasser Omar, deputy of the planning and budget committee, said that the tax disputes referred to the judiciary amount to about 150,000 cases, including appeals against income and sales taxation, VAT, and stamp duties, pending a final verdict.
He added that the tax disputes resolution law helped the authority to collect EGP 16bn, since the law has come into force, noting that about 80% of the disputes were resolved in the last week of the time limit set by the previous law. It prompted the Ministry of Finance to consider shortening this legal period to only four months instead of two years.
Elksan said that the parliamentary committee met with the new head of the Egyptian Customs Authority to review the authority's development plan in the coming period. “We asked the head of the Customs Authority to hold regular meetings every three months to discuss the progress of its development plan,” she added.
The Ministry of Finance aims to increase its tax revenue to EGP 770bn by the end of the current fiscal year, compared to EGP 604bn in the last fiscal year.
Elksan, who also heads the public revenues sub-committee, said they aim to improve the taxation system by increasing the taxpayer base, noting that taxes account for 77% of the state revenues.
The parliament approved the income tax bill drafted by Elksan that aims to amend Article 42 of Law No 91 for 2005 and its amendments to bridge the legal gaps in the law that affect the country's tax revenue.
According to this amendment, a real estate transaction tax of 2.5% will be applied nationwide except in villages, and it will compensate the inheritance tax law that was deemed null by the Supreme Constitutional Court due to being unconstitutional.