Is more tax reform in the works? President Abdel Fattah El Sisi discussed Egypt’s tax code with an eye on how to encourage investment, expand the nation’s tax base and reform the tax bureaucracy, Al Mal reports. In a meeting yesterday with Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, Finance Minister Amr El Garhy, and Deputy Finance Ministers Amr El Monayer and Ahmed Kouchouk — the same day the IMF staff team arrived in town — discussions focused on the draft Settlement of Taxation Disputes Act, which aims to chip into an EGP 45 bn backlog of tax disputes, according to El Monayer. El Sisi was also briefed on legislation being drawn up to bring small businesses into the tax system, and the president called for the Tax Authority’s databases to be digitized. Last week, Suez Canal Economic Zone chief Ahmed Darwish had announced that El Sisi had “agreed in principle” that taxes in the SCZone ought to be reviewed from their current 22.5%, suggesting a return to incentives in economic zones.