Egypt denies imposing new taxes after increasing minimum wage

CAIRO – 16 March 2021: Egypt’s Finance Minister Mohamed Maait denied that the government has any intention to impose new taxes or to increase current rates after increasing the minimum wage

Maait said in a TV interview that the state will continue to increase the tax collection by expanding the base of financiers and improving the collection mechanism.
 

In other televised statements, Maait pointed out that the state wants to compensate the Egyptian people for the period which witnessed greater inflation than the increase in salaries, which had a negative impact on the standard of living.

“President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi's directive to raise the minimum wage to LE 2,400 would increase the salaries of all job ranks,” according to Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait.

Maait said on Monday evening that a list will be prepared for all employee segments after raising the minimum wage, showing the volume of the increase for each job grade.

The Minister of Finance stated that the cost of the increase in the wages of state employees in next year's budget represents LE 37 billion.

Maait added that 3 million employees will benefit from the allowance for those not addressed by the civil service law, pointing to an increase in job incentives.

The minister also noted that the budget for the next fiscal year includes an incentive for workers moving to the new administrative capital with a value of LE 1.5 billion, which will be in the form of an apartment installment or a transfer allowance, pointing to the launch of a promotions movement for those who meet the requirements on June 30th.

The Minister of Finance expected that the budget for the next fiscal year would achieve an initial surplus of about LE 90 billion.

Sisi had directed to raise the minimum wage to LE 2,400, and to increase the salaries of all workers in the state’s administrative apparatus, with a total of about LE 37 billion in the budget for the next fiscal year (2021-2022).

He also directed the approval of two allowances at a cost of about LE 7.5 billion, the first being a periodic allowance for employees engaged in the civil service law, at a rate of 7 percent of the job wage, and the second, a special allowance for workers not addressed by the civil service law, at 13 percent of the basic salary.

The directives also included increasing the additional incentive at a total cost of about LE 17 billion , and the promotion of employees who meet the conditions of promotion by next June 30, in order to achieve an improvement in their wages by the value of the promotion bonus legally decided at an estimated cost of LE 1  billion .

President El-Sisi also directed an increase in the value of pensions by about 13 percent at a total cost of about 31 billion pounds, and the allocation of a financial incentive estimated at LE 1.5 billion for workers transferred to the new administrative capital, in the budget of the next fiscal year.