Raising the value-added (VAT) rate to 14% from 13% in FY 2017-18 should bring in an extra EGP 7-8 bn in revenues, Deputy Finance Minister Amr El Monayer told Reuters. The newswire notes that the delayed implementation of the VAT had the state targeting around EGP 20 bn in revenues from it in the current fiscal year.

Separately, the Finance Ministry has set three rates at which companies will be allowed to expense FX losses they incurred from sourcing USD from the parallel market in 2016, Al Borsa reports. Companies can write-off 15% of the variance between the official and parallel market rates for January-June of last year, 40% between July and September, and 60% in October 2016.

Sorry, counsel. You’re going to be paying VAT. The VAT will be applied to all “professional services” including accountants and lawyers but a payment system can be worked out for each profession, El Monayer also told Al Masry Al Youm. Agreements can be signed which would facilitate accounting procedures come tax season, he added. The ministry and the House Budgeting Committee agreed to hold meetings with the various syndicates to hammer out the details of the proposed procedures, according to Al Borsa. Actors’ guilds will be included in the new system, El Monayer is quoted as saying. The Lawyers Syndicate had filed a lawsuit to kill the VAT, saying it was unconstitutional to impose the tax on them.