When is the Investment Act actually going to be ready? Short answer: Nobody knows.Certainly not the good people at the House of Representatives’ Economic Committee, which has been dithering for months on the key bill. Committee members have been giving mixed messages on when they will be done with the law: Amr El Gohary told Al Borsa that the committee will be done with it today, saying he expects the House to take it up in a plenary session by Wednesday or Thursday, if it doesn’t get sidetracked with discussions on the FY2017-18 budget. Another member, Ahmed Farghal, wants to give it another few days, while Medhat El Sherif is giving a more realistic answer, telling Al Mal that it would be difficult to know when that is (he gets points for honesty). One thing is certain, they are all blaming the government for the delay, saying that they have been waiting for the Investment Ministry to amend the law based on their recommendations. This coming from MPs who until a week ago had not settled on whether the form they want the bill to take: They appear to have dropped their notion of reducing the law further from 99 articles after wasting time on and then abandoning a proposal to divide the bill into two.

MPs are promising headway today, with Finance Minister Amr El Garhy set to discuss the bill’s tax incentives with MPs. El Garhy will reportedly be joined by Mohamed Khodeir, the head of the General Authority for Free Zones and Investment. MPs have also promised that they will resolve some of the more contentious aspects of the bill, including articles on settlements with business owners accused of graft.

Investment Minister Sahar Nasr spoke for all of us when she urged the committee to get its [redacted] together and move forward with the law.

Oh, and after nagging the Ismail cabinet to death to give a 10% social welfare raise to bureaucrats not covered by the Civil Service Act, MPs failed to reach quorum for a vote to pass the law on Thursday, Al Ahram reports. This comes despite the cabinet stating that the raise is ready and can be disbursed retroactively at the end of May. Let’s see them pin this one on someone else.