Government targets 2.2 billion EGP from property taxes in FY2017/18

CAIRO – 5 April: Egypt is targeting 2.2 billion EGP ($121.8 million) in revenues from real estate taxes by the end of fiscal year 2017/18 (to start July 1), the head of the Real Estate Taxation Authority (RTA) said Wednesday.

"Total revenues from real estate taxes reached 1.5 billion EGP in the first 9 months of FY2016/17 (from July to March), compared to 700 million EGP at the same period of the previous year,” RTA head Dr. Samia Hussein said in her speech at the 5th Annual Conference on Governmental Payment and Collection organized by E-Finance co in Cairo Wednesday.

Total tax revenues, including income tax, value-added tax (VAT) and property tax, reached 240.5 billion EGP in the first 9 months of the current fiscal year: 239 billion EGP from income tax and VAT, up from 187 billion EGP at the same corresponding period a year earlier, Deputy Finance Minister Amr Al-Monier told Youm7 Tuesday.

Egypt hopes to raise total revenues worth 509 billion EGP in the new fiscal year 2017/18, including tax and customs revenues which represent 75 percent of the state revenues, according to the new budget draft announced earlier in March.

In an attempt to cut a growing budget deficit, Egypt introduced the VAT to replace sales tax in October, with the aim of raising 32 billion EGP annually.