THIS MORNING: See you next year, folks
And that’s a wrap on 2022, ladies and gents: Today is the final time you’ll hear from us this year. EnterpriseAM and EnterprisePM will be off this Thursday, 29 December and Sunday, 1 January, before returning to our publishing schedule from Monday, 2 January. We wish you all a wonderful start to the new year.
PSA #1- Banks will be off on Sunday, 1 January to mark the end of their fiscal year, and will be returning to work on Monday, 2 January, the Central Bank of Egypt said yesterday. The EGX has also followed suit and declared Sunday a holiday in light of banks’ closure, in a statement seen by Enterprise.
PSA #2- Amendments to the expat car-for-FX scheme are now live: It is now easier for Egyptian expats to import cars tax-free after the Finance Ministry yesterday amended the rules of its cars-for-FX scheme in a bid to increase demand.
Rewind: Egyptians abroad are able to import cars tax- and customs-free provided they pay the dues up front in foreign currency by 28 February. The scheme was introduced by the government to help address the FX shortage.
The scheme is yet to take off: Since its launch six weeks ago, the response among expats has been lukewarm at best. The government was hoping to bring in USD 2.5 bn in FX from the 15-week scheme but a third of the way through only 4k people had submitted requests, which will likely net just USD 62 mn.
The FinMin has made a number of changes to save the program:
- Rules that required expats to pay the fees at least three months prior to importing a car have been scrapped, as agreed by the cabinet a few weeks ago. Instead, they will be able to submit six months’ worth of bank statements to prove their ability to pay.
- Customs clearance fees for cars imported through the program will also be capped at EGP 3k.
- Expats can also purchase cars from dealerships in Egypt’s freetrade zones through a separate app, with the process following the same rules as the rest of the program.
THIS WEEK-
Companies have three days to register with the Egyptian Tax Authority’s e-invoicing system after the Finance Ministry earlier this month gave companies an additional two weeks. Only 150k companies had signed up to the new system as of the end of November, well below a sought goal of 1 mn companies to register under the system.
REMEMBER- This deadline no longer applies to the self-employed: The Finance Ministry pushed the deadline for self-employed professionals — including doctors, pharmacists and lawyers — to 30 April 2023 after widespread opposition to the system.
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DEBT WATCH-
The FinMin won’t be drawn on when it might return to the international capital markets: Tapping global markets, be it through sukuk or bond issuances, is going to be contingent on market conditions, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said when we asked this week. “We are currently following global markets … which will help us determine the right time to move forward with an issuance.”
“Uncertainty still dominates global markets,” he said, pointing to rising inflation.”We hope that global markets settle down next year and we hope the same for inflation.”
REMEMBER- We are expecting the Finance Ministry to go ahead with the maiden sukuk issuance and a sale of so-called panda bonds in China next year, with a USD 500 mn issuance of CNY-denominated bonds planned for 1Q 2023 and a USD 1.5-2.5 bn sale of shariah-compliant securities before the end of the fiscal year in June.
*** It’s Hardhat day — your weekly briefing of all things infrastructure in Egypt: Enterprise’s industry vertical focuses each Wednesday on infrastructure, covering everything from energy, water, transportation, and urban development, as well as social infrastructure such as health and education.
In today’s issue: The second and final part of our review of the year in infrastructure.