Opposition to e-invoicing among the self-employed is mounting
It was a packed evening on talk shows last night, as Kelma Akhira’s Lamees El Hadidi tried to understand the opposition of self-employed professionals to the Tax Authority’s e-invoicing system.
REMEMBER- The Tax Authority is requiring self-employed professionals, including doctors, engineers, lawyers and artists to register on the e-invoicing system by 15 December.
The Pharmacists’ Syndicate has come out in opposition to e-invoicing: In an interview on Kelma Akhira (watch, runtime: 3:11), Mahfouz Ramzy, head of the Pharma Manufacturing Committee at the Cairo Pharmacists’ Syndicate, called on Finance Minister Mohamed Maait to scrap or delay the 15 December deadline to register on the system until a meeting is held between the syndicate and officials at the ministry.
What’s the issue? Pharmacists argue they can’t stomach the costs: Ramzy said that annual expenses to register through the system “would be five times” taxes already paid by pharmacists. “We can’t incur such expenses,” he said, pegging the costs at over EGP 30k a year. The expenses include installing a designated system at pharmacies and paying monthly and annual subscription fees for the system, he said.
The Doctors’ Syndicate also has concerns: Syndicate chiefs are set to meet ministry officials tomorrow to discuss their concerns, the syndicate’s treasurer Abu Bakr El Qady told El Hadidi (watch, runtime: 3:37). El Qady believes it would be difficult to oblige private clinics in rural areas for example to register on the system, given its costly expenses and hurdles to implement the system.
The Bar Association is arguing that lawyers don’t provide services and so shouldn’t have to file e-invoices: Its deputy head, Magdy Sakhy, told Kelma Akhira (watch, runtime: 9:49) that lawyers “do not provide a service or sell a product” to have them obliged to register on the system. “I take part with the authority to achieve justice,” Sakhy said, stressing that his profession was not one of a service provider. Tens of lawyers recently staged a protest in front of the Lawyers Syndicate against the mandatory registration on the e-invoicing system.
Enterprise says: If the rest of us have gotta sign up for e-invoicing and pay our taxes, so do you.
Pharmacists will continue to be allowed to administer some injections — but only for patients who have a prescription: Pharmacists will now only be permitted to administer intramuscular or subcutaneous injections that have been prescribed to patients by a doctor, the Health Ministry said yesterday. They will also have to pass a course designed by the ministry in order to administer injections, the statement reads.
More details: Health Ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar spoke to Ala Mas’ouleety on the decision (watch, runtime: 8:32) and confirmed that only doctors, nurses and accredited pharmacists who have passed the course would be authorized to administer injections, he said. The ministry announced a week ago that it would begin holding one-day courses at certain hospitals and medical centers, he said.
Why now? The decision came weeks after a pharmacist and her assistant were arrested in Alexandria over the death of two young sisters after taking injections at the pharmacy. They were referred to trial on charges of practicing medicine without a license.
Pharmacists are not happy: The Cairo Pharmacists’ Syndicate’s Mahfouz told El Hadidi (watch, runtime: 13:16) that the issue is bigger than the pharmacists administering the injections, and that any solution needs to consider the role of doctors handing out prescriptions. He called for pharmacists to have more power to intervene when they believe a doctor has wrongly prescribed a shot and rejected the idea that they should be held accountable for doctors’ actions.
Enterprise says: If all of the rest of us have gotta sign up for e-invoicing and pay our taxes, so do you.
Egyptian journalist and television presenter Mufid Fawzy passed away at the age of 89, Ahram Online reports. Fawzy was a renowned television presenter, interviewer, and journalist. He served as host of the talk show Hadeeth Al Madena for nearly 26 years. He was also a co-host for Al Qahira Al Youm and the editor-in-chief of Rose Al Yusuf’s Sabah Al Khayr magazine.
Fawzy’s passing got the talking heads talking about his legacy, with coverage from El Hekaya (watch, runtime: 19:04), Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime: 9:12) and Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 3:55).