Back to the complete issue
Thursday, 2 November 2017

Cabinet approves extending Tax Dispute Resolution Act for two additional years

The Ismail Cabinet agreed yesterday to extend the Tax Dispute Resolution Act’s mandate for an additional two years, according to a statement. The law, which had passed the House in September 2016, removed tax dispute cases from the courts and handed them over to newly-established committees to seek amicable settlements. Its mandate had originally been limited to one year, but the Finance Ministry had signaled in August that it would be looking to extend its application until all tax disputes are settled, particularly as it helped the ministry exceed its tax revenue targets for FY2016-17. Unless there’s a provision buried in the law making an extension a cabinet-level decision (and we’ve seen no evidence of that), expect this will now go back to the House for approval.

Cabinet also reportedly approved the purchase of wind-generate power from three stations that Lekela Power, Italgen, and Marubeni plan to construct, head of the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company’s (EETC) tariff unit Lamiaa Youssef tells Al Borsa. The EETC will purchase the power at USD 0.036-0.038 per kWh for 25 years, government sources tell the newspaper. The stations will produce a combined 1.170 GW of power.

The ministers also agreed to suspend issuing licenses for billboards, and form a committee to set new regulations for the issuance of further licenses, Al Mal reports. The decision is meant to tackle the haphazard placement of billboards, according to Cabinet spokesperson Ashraf Sultan. This makes us very happy. Other decisions taken during the weekly meeting include:

  • Issuing a decision to establish the information database for the state budget as a prelude to canceling cash payments by the end of this month;
  • Approving a presidential decree ordering the restructuring of the Egyptian Survey Authority.

Enterprise is a daily publication of Enterprise Ventures LLC, an Egyptian limited liability company (commercial register 83594), and a subsidiary of Inktank Communications. Summaries are intended for guidance only and are provided on an as-is basis; kindly refer to the source article in its original language prior to undertaking any action. Neither Enterprise Ventures nor its staff assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, whether in the form of summaries or analysis. © 2022 Enterprise Ventures LLC.

Enterprise is available without charge thanks to the generous support of HSBC Egypt (tax ID: 204-901-715), the leading corporate and retail lender in Egypt; EFG Hermes (tax ID: 200-178-385), the leading financial services corporation in frontier emerging markets; SODIC (tax ID: 212-168-002), a leading Egyptian real estate developer; SomaBay (tax ID: 204-903-300), our Red Sea holiday partner; Infinity (tax ID: 474-939-359), the ultimate way to power cities, industries, and homes directly from nature right here in Egypt; CIRA (tax ID: 200-069-608), the leading providers of K-12 and higher level education in Egypt; Orascom Construction (tax ID: 229-988-806), the leading construction and engineering company building infrastructure in Egypt and abroad; Moharram & Partners (tax ID: 616-112-459), the leading public policy and government affairs partner; Palm Hills Developments (tax ID: 432-737-014), a leading developer of commercial and residential properties; Mashreq (tax ID: 204-898-862), the MENA region’s leading homegrown personal and digital bank; Industrial Development Group (IDG) (tax ID:266-965-253), the leading builder of industrial parks in Egypt; Hassan Allam Properties (tax ID:  553-096-567), one of Egypt’s most prominent and leading builders; and Saleh, Barsoum & Abdel Aziz (tax ID: 220-002-827), the leading audit, tax and accounting firm in Egypt.