Amr El Garhy may not want to raise taxes, but the House of Reps can’t wait to eat the rich. Members of parliament are in touch with their inner populists, as the House Budget Committee voted yesterday to raise the minimum income before which Egyptians are required to file an income tax return to EGP 14,400 from a current EGP 13,500. The committee is waiting to hear from the Finance Ministry on what this might do to the state budget, said committee member Yasser Omar, Al Borsa reports.

As for the wealthy? The committee would love to impose a progressive tax system capped at 25% on income above EGP 505k per year, but will probably hold back on making that official until it hears back from the ministry on what the decision may mean for the investment climate, Omar said, in a sign that cooler heads among the committee have prevailed. To hear Omar tell it, some members had called for a 30% wealth surtax on annual income north of EGP 1 mn. The government had scrapped the 5% wealth surtax last year. As we noted yesterday, The committee did approve amendments to the income tax law that mandate tax appeals committee be set up in all governorates, the newspaper reports. Finance Minister Amr El Garhy stated that stability in tax policy is more important than new taxes.