The Finance Ministry stuck to its guns on the 14% baseline for the value-added tax rate during ongoing talks with the House of Representatives’ Legislative and Planning and Budget Committees, Al Mal reports. Finance Minister Amr El Garhy is refusing to accept a 12% rate on the grounds that the exemptions list is already too extensive, said Legislative Committee member Khaled Hanafy (who shares a similar name as the minister). For its part, the Finance Ministry appears to be tight lipped, with Deputy Minister Amr El Monayer stating that the matter is in the hands of the committee and the House, Youm7 reports. He did state, however, that the 14% was appropriate considering the exemptions list.

This comes as the Planning Committee is planning to recommend international school tuition be VAT-exempt, said the committee’s deputy head Yasser Wakeel. This on top of the seven goods and services that the House was trying to exempt, which we noted last week. Furthermore, Wakeel tells Al Borsa that he is planning to obtain an exemption for automobiles from a flat tax of 1% imposed for cars with engines under 1600cc and the 15% tax on cars of 2000cc and above.

Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry has prepared draft legislation to increase the cost of 14 government services, a source told Al Masry Al Youm. If implemented, the price increases, which will impact services including commercial and real estate registration as well as issuing passports, are estimated to bring in an additional EGP 6.5 bn. The ministry is passing the proposed amendments on to the cabinet and House of Representatives.