CBE nixes amendments to income tax act that would have given tax inspectors access to corporate bank data: Central Bank Governor Tarek Amer poured cold water yesterday on proposed amendments to the Income Tax Act that would have allowed the Tax Authority investigators to access corporate bank data as part of investigations of suspicious activity. Amer told Reuters in an email yesterday that the move would not be allowed, after Tax Authority boss Emad Samy confirmed to the newswire on Sunday morning what he had told Enterprise on Saturday: That the proposed measure, positioned as part of the authority’s drive to clamp down on tax evasion, would be contingent on CBE approval. Samy had also told Reuters that he thought the change would not contradict the Central Bank Act.

Amer, however, later told Reuters that the proposal would violate client data privacy provisions. Samy subsequently walked back his remarks, claiming his words had been incorrectly phrased. The tax authority boss warned that the clamor could “harm tax collections and destabilize the banking sector,” Reuters’ Arabic service reports.