Cairo – Mubasher: The Egyptian Minister of Finance, Mohamed Maait, said that Egypt's economic sector will witness new changes by the end of June 2022 in line with presidential directives.
By the end of fiscal year (FY) 2021/2022, the tax and customs automation and development projects will be completed which will help integrate the informal economy into the formal one, Maait added in a statement on Tuesday.
He cited data compiled by the Egyptian Tax Authority (ETA) over the last three years that showed that the size of the informal economy amounts to about 55% of the entire economy.
The minister added that the recent tax digitisation projects have contributed to enhancing tax justice and increasing tax revenues by 15% in FY20/21 despite the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The electronic invoice system has led to uncovering more than 3,000 tax evasion cases with tax dues amounting to about EGP 4 billion. More than 5,000 companies have joined the system, submitting more than 500,000 e-invoices per day.
By the beginning of April 2022, the e-receipt system will be applied at all outlets and it will track all commercial transactions in the real time.
In FY20/21, Egypt's economic growth reached 3.3%, while the overall budget deficit and the primary surplus amounted to 7.4% and 1.46% of the gross domestic product (GDP), respectively.
The country was one of the top countries in reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio, slashing it by 20% over the last three years before the pandemic. The debt-to-GDP ratio slid to 87.5% in FY19/20 from 108% in FY16/17.
These remarks came during an open dialogue with representatives from the business community and development partners during a conference organised by the Egyptian Businessmen's Association (EBA).
