Joint stock companies and investment companies in Cairo will have to register with the government’s electronic invoicing platform and begin issuing digital invoices by 15 December under a directive (pdf) issued by the Tax Authority on Thursday. The decision will affect more than 3.7k companies, the names of which were published by the authority.

Large taxpayers are already on board: Some 2.8k large taxpayers have signed up to the Finance Ministry’s new digital platform over several phases going back to last November, and last week was the final deadline for them to register. Large companies who have not joined the system now face penalties that include inclusion in the Tax Authority’s black list and being denied basic government services.

What next? State agencies and companies in which the state owns a majority stake must also register by 1 October. The government plans to roll out electronic invoicing for all business-to-consumer transactions, a process which Finance Minister Mohamed Maait told Reuters last week will start to be implemented within six months but one that is expected to be altogether more complicated than the first B2B phase. The ministry is hoping to get all of the country’s taxpayers submitting B2B invoices by April 2023.

The new system could double the government’s tax revenue, Maait said. “My expectation is that with the completion of the easiest project, tax revenue will be doubled, from EGP 1 tn to EGP 2 tn,” the minister said.