Sisi orders to increase workers' income, tax exemption limit

CAIRO – 14 March 2020: President Abdel Fattah El Sisi emphasized adopting a number of measures aimed at increasing the income of civil servants in the country to raise their standard of living.

The measures included endorsing the periodic allowance for employees included in the civil service law with a 7 percent of the total comprehensive wage and employees not included in the law with a 12 percent of the basic wage.

This came during Sisi’s meeting with Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly, the minister of planning and economic development and the minister of finance, in addition to the deputy minister of finance for financial policies, deputy minister of finance for public treasury and deputy minister of planning for planning affairs. The meeting reviewed the draft budget for the fiscal year 2020/2021.

The President also directed increasing the tax exemption limit for those whose annual wage falls between LE 8,000 - 15,000 and creating a low tax bracket with a value of 2.5 percent for income earners that make less than LE 35,000 annually, so as to contribute to increasing the monthly income of citizens with the least income.

Earlier this month, Finance Minister Mohamed Ma’it said that a new law on the brackets of income tax will be submitted to the House of Representatives shortly, aiming to alleviate burden of the income taxes borne by the citizens.

Min.: Bill on brackets of income tax to lower burden on citizens

CAIRO, March 8 (MENA) - Finance Minister Mohamed Maait Sunday said that a new law on the brackets of income tax will be submitted to the House of Representatives shortly. The draft law aims to alleviate burden of the income taxes borne by the citizens.

During the meeting, Ma’it explained that initial indicators show the continuation of achieving of an initial surplus estimated at 2 percent of the GDP, in addition to reducing the budget deficit to 6.2 percent, down from 7.2 percent of the GDP during the past fiscal year.
Ma’it also added the debt of the public budget agencies declined to 80 percent by the end of the next fiscal year, compared to 108 percent of the GDP in June 2017.

On another noter, the minister of planning and economic development Hala el-Saeed presented the state's investment plan for 2021, which seeks to realize a 6 percent growth rate so as to create jobs and reduce unemployment to 8 percent.

The plan also works on increasing the investment budget of the state agencies to finance a number certain sectors to accelerate their growth and improve their services, such as education, housing, electricity, transportation, communications, youth and sports.

“The investment plan also seeks to channel investments to a number of vital initiatives in the health sector, such as an initiative for incubators, ICU beds and childcare beds, whereby incubators will be increased by 10 percent, childcare beds by 90 percent and ICU beds by 80 percent, in addition to increasing allocations for the "Decent Life" initiative to significantly improve services provided to the poorest villages,” according to the minister.