Egypt govt to amend controversial new tax rates

[DJKeefy]

Egypt govt to amend controversial new tax rates: industry minister.

Hatem Saleh affirms that the government will revise its recently introduced — and swiftly revoked — tax system revisions.

The highly controversial new tax structure ratified by President Mohamed Morsi and revoked shortly after due to the public outcry is going to be revised to become fairer and less burdensome on low-income classes, confirmed Hatem Saleh, minister of industry and foreign trade, at a press conference Tuesday.

Amendments will address in particular sales taxes on specific commodities, as the government is planning to replace products that were included in the recently-announced hikes, such as cigarettes, steel and fertilisers, with other consumer goods.

"We must all bear the burden of the new tax increases to help our struggling economy recover from the hardships of the transitional period," said Mohamed El-Bahey, head of the taxes committee of the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FET).

"The sales tax increase, however, will have a very high social cost and will mainly affect low-income citizens and its review is of utmost importance," explained El-Bahey.

The tax raises should be implemented in a framework that boosts production and not the contrary, asserted Saleh during the press conference. Tax increases will only be implemented following a "social dialogue," so as to promote general consensus, stated Saleh.

Minister Saleh affirmed that the tax law would negatively affect low-income households and underlined the importance of amending it, in contradiction to Prime Minister Hesham Kandil's prior statements that the tax raise aims at facilitating social justice and that it would not negatively affect the underprivileged.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/60965.aspx