The Chairman of the Planning and Budget Committee in the House of Representatives, Fakhri al-Fiqi, explained that the amendment of the draft law achieves a set of goals, without burdening the citizen, in line with international standards and the requirements of foreign companies, and consistent with e-commerce applications, in addition to approving some tax exemptions that affect vital sectors.
For her part, Mervat El-Kassan, a member of the Plan and Budget Committee of the Egyptian House of Representatives, told Sky News Arabia that there are many amendments to the value-added tax law, with the primary aim of supporting the national Egyptian industry.
She added: “The amendment includes a set of exemptions in the economic zone of the Suez Canal and EgyptAir, in addition to granting exemptions in the free and economic zones.”
And she indicated that: “The draft value-added law that was presented in the People’s Assembly provided several exemptions to support and encourage the Egyptian industry, whether at the level of economic zones, or national companies such as EgyptAir.”
She pointed out that “the health sector will receive, according to the law, an exemption for the inputs of medicines, blood derivatives and related items, such as vaccines and family planning methods, and all of this will then be reflected on the citizen. The support included agricultural products sold in their original form such as seeds, as the law guarantees the promotion of The agricultural sector and other sectors will have a positive impact on the citizen.
“We must not forget that we are carrying out the largest giant project in the world, which is a dignified life project, and this law provides exemptions in the sanitation sector until the sewage and its services reach all citizens in all villages,” al-Kassan continued.
Al-Kassan also indicated that “there was an amendment related to detergents and soap for domestic use, and it was supposed to come out from the table price of 5% to the general price of 14%, which was rejected by Parliament, which made it return to its original position again.”
Regarding the refund of taxes by foreign visitors, Al-Kassan explained that the law “allowed the departing foreign visitors to Egypt within a period of 3 months to recover the tax previously paid to the seller on his purchases, provided that there is an invoice for these purchases of not less than 1500 pounds, which encourages the foreign visitor to buy goods from Egypt before his departure, provided that it is registered, provided that the tax is refunded to him during departure if the period of his stay in Egypt does not exceed 3 months.
On the citizens’ response to the tax law, a member of the People’s Assembly’s Plan and Budget Committee indicated that “citizens, as soon as they hear about a tax law, judge it that it will result in a rise in prices, but the amendments to the law are very important to support all sectors in the state.”
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