In recent initiatives to improve tax administration, Egyptian financial investigators and the local tax police cracked down on tax evaders, recovering some 100 million Egyptian pounds ($22 million) over the past nine months, the official MENA news agency reported. The sum was seized from customs, sales tax and other goods and services tax evaders.
The government was recently charged in parliament that its fiscal imprudence and reluctance to take forceful action against the prevalent phenomenon of tax evasion are primarily to blame for the growing budget deficit.
Private businesses are estimated to be in arrears to the state, owing some EP11 billion in taxes, while only 10 percent of the five million citizens who should pay income tax on an annual basis in Egypt, actually submit their annual tax reports, Hassan Mohamed Kamal, board member of the Egyptian Society for General Financing and Taxes told Al-Ahram . — (menareport.com)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
