FEI calls for exempting factories from property tax

CAIRO- 31 July 2017: A number of industrial chambers at the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI) are calling for the cancellation of the property tax for factories, Head of the FEI’s Taxes and Duties Committee Mohamed el-Bahi said.

The calls come as manufacturers are currently suffering from several economic burdens, El-Bahi told Egypt Today on Sunday.

Factories are already crippled by low profit margin due to high production costs after the flotation of the Egyptian pound, which eventually led to lower production volumes.

The FEI’s committees were scheduled to hold a meeting on Sunday to discuss their requests regarding the matter so that they can be filed to the parliament.

Previously, El-Bahi said that his committee is considering exempting insolvent factories from the property tax.

Revenues from property taxes reached LE 1.5 billion in the first nine months of fiscal year 2016/2017 (from July to March), compared to LE 700 million at the same period of the previous year, head of the Property Tax Authority Samia Hussein said in April.

Total tax revenues, including income tax, value-added tax (VAT) and property tax, reached LE 240.5 billion in the first nine months of the current fiscal year; LE 239 billion from income tax and VAT, up from LE 187 billion in the corresponding period a year earlier, according to Deputy Minister of Finance Minister Amr al-Monayer.