Corona tax freeze for tourism companies: Companies in the struggling tourism sector are being given some breathing room after the government agreed to postpone payment of the 1% tax on salaries introduced last year to shore up government finances through the pandemic. Tourism companies will not have to pay the tax until 31 October under a decision made by the cabinet during its weekly meeting yesterday, a move designed to ease financial pressure on the sector which has been one of the hardest hit by covid-19. Both public and private sector companies have been required to pay the temporary 12-month tax since last summer, the proceeds of which will be used to protect the country from the ongoing pandemic emergency.

The waiver comes as part of a raft of measures and initiatives by the state to support our tourism industry. The CBE last year increased funding to support the tourism sector to EGP 50 bn, allowing more companies in the sector to access soft loans to renovate and upgrade tourism infrastructure. The central bank cut interest rates by a combined 400 bps last year to help struggling businesses cope with the repercussions of covid-19.

ALSO FROM THE CABINET MEETING-

Some EGP 50 mn will be used to purchase extra medical-grade oxygen to shore up the country’s supplies, according to a decision greenlit yesterday. Questions have been raised over supplies after several deaths in a Sharqia hospital earlier this year were alleged to have been caused by an oxygen shortage. The government has been working to secure more supplies, saying in April that it now has 2.2 mn liters on hand, up from 1.2 mn in February. It wants to increase this further to 3 mn liters in anticipation of further waves of the virus putting pressure on the country’s healthcare system.