During opening the conference of Alexandria Tax Society

- The Minister of Finance:  tax amendments will not affect low income groups ...our consultations with the IMF are still ongoing

- Post offices will be included into tax E-payment system1200

-  40% increase in tax revenues in the first half of current FY,

-  ensuring the loyalty of The Egyptian people

- Mamdouh Omar: the 3^rd of next March is the launch of the first secured and encrypted tax E-payment site

Dr. Al Morsey Hegazy ensures that the government is keen to relieve the burdens of low-income citizens. This will be taken into consideration in amendments to the currently frozen tax laws, which are being revised to ensure that Low-income groups do not incur any burdens.

He also said that negotiations between Egypt and the IMF are still ongoing, calling the society and the political forces to prevail Egypt's interests upon their own interests, confirming the necessity of boosting production to overcome difficulties of  the current phase.

He explained that most of the categorical demands are indisputable right, but we should take into account the critical time the national economy faces, indicating to the need for secure and stable society for attracting Arab and foreign investments.

The above mentioned was stated during the Minister’s opening of the conference on "the proposed tax law amendments in the current phase" organized by the Egyptian Tax Society in cooperation with Sumed the Arab Petroleum Piplines Company, held in Alexandria and attended by Mamdouh Omr, the head of  Egypt Tax Authority, Dr. Ahmed Shawky , head of Egyptian Society for Taxation, engineer, Abdouh Seada Ibrahim , chairman of Sumed the Arab Petroleum Piplines Company, Mr. Moustafa Abdalkader , head of the Central Administration of Tax Areas, Dr. Ramadan Sedeek ,  Dean of  Helwan Law Faculty, advisor to the Head of Tax Authority, Mr. Salah Abdalmoneam, Head of the central Administration of Tax Inspection, Mohamed El Nahas , Head of the Executive Affairs Sector, and many Auditors ,tax experts, representatives of commercial banks & major companies and members of  Large Tax payers Center .

The Minister declared that some measures to be taken to support tax community and to mitigate the taxpayers' burdens, including the activation of tax exemptions of tax indebted establishments and individuals that stopped their activities.

The Minister also said that one of the said measures is the expansion of E-payment system channels for tax and customs dues, supervised by the Electronic Payment and Collection Center affiliates to MoF and operated by E-finance according to the parameters set by the CBE.

He explained that the E-payment system contributes in reducing the time needed to transfer general revenues to the Ministry of Finance’s accounts in the CBE, allowing promptly to be used in funding public expenditures. He indicated that network of 30 bank branches reaching to 1850 provide E-Payment services.

The Minister said that, as of 1^st of March 2013, about 1200 post offices will be included in E-Payment system, allowing small taxpayers to benefit from the same E-service, provided to large taxpayers.

He said that, nevertheless, the conditions currently experienced by the society, tax revenues achieved a big leap during the first half of the current FY, as it jumped up to LE 111 billion, an increase of 39.3 % more that the achieved in the same period of the previous FY, rising

total state’s public revenues to LE 153 billion.

Nevertheless, the condition currently experienced by the society, such leap has been achieved, this confirms the uniqueness of the Egyptian people and taxpayers' keenness to support our national economy and enhance Egypt.

The Minister of Finance hoped that proposals of the participants to the conference contribute in achieving the equilibrium between tax financial targets and its social targets, assuring that the government is eager to turn out the essence of the proposed tax law amendments to mitigate tax burdens of low-income citizens and that each citizen contributes in public revenues as per his ability, to achieve social justice.

The Minister called taxpayers to quickly pay the due taxes such critical phase that we all hope to end, and recover security and stability, He explained that he trusts all employees of the Egyptian Tax Authority, who as usual exerted their best efforts to provide all facilities for taxpayers and help them to file tax returns, either in the tax directorates or in tax guidance offices.

He called for speed up the completion of Tax Authority’s performance development plans whether for development of human resources or tax collection, examination and accounting systems and mechanisms.

Mamdouh Omar, the head of Egyptian Tax Authority said that the conference’s organization comes within Tax Authority's efforts to communicate with tax community to recognize the problems and obstacles faced by taxpayers to solve, praising efforts of accounting offices and tax experts contributed in success of tax returns filing seasons

Mamdouh Omar said that the electronic payment system for taxes dues facilitates the CPS service which enables companies and institutions to pay taxes and customs fees dues, and any other government dues may be activated in the future, like Real Estate Taxes or Insurance Subscriptions from the headquarter of tax payer’s company without the need to go to a bank branch for payment, such mechanism will be an appropriate channel for companies and major institutions, expecting more expansion in providing service during the upcoming period, whereas this service is currently available in 8 banks and it will extend in  12 banks at the end of this year and at the end of 2015 will be extended in 30 banks.

Mamdouh Omar said that the use of the international information network (internet)  is one of the new system channels, as on 3^rd of March this website www.efawateer.com will be launched with the cooperation of e-finance company and the National Bank , this fully secured website, enables payment of taxes throughout the electronic certification system, mentioning that this website is the first electronic secured and encrypted website, without endangering the government receipts in Egypt.

Dr. Ahmed Shawki, head of Egyptian Society for Taxation, said that the status quo in Egypt requires that everybody provides his professional and academic experience in serving executive authorities and decision makers in order to enable them to achieve Egypt’s goals and to correct the economic path.

Also, he requested working on actual and field survey of informal economy establishments through activating the role of survey departments in all tax directorates and that will contribute to enhancing the state’s public revenues, as well as providing mechanisms for the resolution of the accumulated disputes between tax payers and taxes directorates.

Eng. Abdo Saad Ibrahim, chief of Sumed for Petroleum Pipelines Company, said that the experience of Sumed since it was established by Arabic-Egyptian capitals assures the importance of Arabic Cooperation and encounters the concerns regarding Arabic Investments to develop the Suez Canal hub.

He said that the company paid due taxes amounting LE. 5  billion, alongside duties estimated at one and half billion dollars paid to Public Treasury , as its cooperation with Suez Canal Authority shared to increase the canal revenues from transit of oil cargoes .

And said that at the end of this month, six depots will be opened with the capacity of one and half million barrels for each depot, in order to store petroleum products in Egypt within the Ministry of Petroleum’s plan to promote strategic Egyptian reserve of such products.

Osama Tawakol, the Head of Large Taxpayer Center, indicated that Sumed Company and Egyptian society for Taxation participated in the said conference works for discussing  the taxes amendments to achieve justice and equilibrium between tax system parties whether taxpayer or companies, maintaining the state right.

He said that E-payment system contributes clearly in general budget enhancement by eliminating collection period of public tax revenues with traditional methods  (money or cheques ) for about two weeks , instead of waiting for several days until entering in the Ministry of Finance  accounts in the CBE in order to be spent on budget programs , this E- Payment promptly transfers  such revenues to the Ministry of Finance, therefore it can be used from the second day of collecting from taxpayer, it will be positively reflected on government cash  levels, accordingly leads to decreasing the issuance of T-bills and bonds, as it means reducing public debt volume and interest rate burden on  general budget .

From this regard, Large Taxpayer Center are keen to activate this system, many of  Large Taxpayer Center clients paid their annual taxes electronically.