Today, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met with Prime Minister Dr. Moustafa Madbouly, Minister of Finance Dr. Mohamed Maait,Vice Minister of Finance for Fiscal Policies Ahmed Kouchouk and Vice Minister of Finance for Public Treasury Dr. Ihab Abu Aish.
The Spokesmen for the Presidency said the meeting followed-up on the financial performance indicators, and the activity of the customs and tax sectors of the Ministry of Finance.
The President was briefed on the financial performance for the first half of the current fiscal year 2022-2023, which proved the state's ability to address various international economic changes, absorb shocks, maintain the safe path of the public budget, provide all state needs, increase government investment allocations and provide all basic commodities and dues for all government agencies.
Over the past three and a half years, until 31 December 2022, transferred nearly 600 billion Egyptian pounds in favor of pension funds, the results of which are close to the original goals of the budget in spite of all the challenges the global economy is facing. This directly affected the economic and financial conditions of all countries. This period witnessed the achievement of a primary surplus of 2.3% of the GDP, as well as a growth rate in budget revenues by about 14%, while the expenditure growth rate reached about 19%.
The meeting also touched on the progress of the implementation of the national economic reform program, supported by the International Monetary Fund. The government seeks to achieve all targeted reforms in this regard, particularly recent steps to approve amendments to the Law on Protection of Competition and Prevention of Monopolistic Practices, as well as the ratification of the State Ownership Policy Document, which aims to maximize the role of the private sector in economic activity and offer it more investment opportunities to help strengthen the partnership between the state and the private sector in the coming period.This is while taking into account that all financial and economic indicators achieved during the first half of the current fiscal year indicate achieving the various targets in this regard. The long-standing cooperation and partnership between the government and the IMF also include providing technical support to ensure that the financial policies followed are in line with the best international standards, thus contributing to attracting more foreign investments.
The meeting also reviewed the Ministry's projects, mainly in the sectors of tax and customs.
The President was briefed on the activation of the comprehensive automation system in the Tax Authority and developments of applying the electronic invoice system, the deadline for which has been extended to April 30. This is in addition to the actual operation of the electronic receipt, which complements with the electronic invoice system. The meeting also followed-up on the developments of work mechanisms and initiatives to combat tax evasion, as well as the inclusion of the informal sector in those mechanisms, as well as the real estate disposal tax system and the performance of the e-commerce follow-up unit in the Tax Authority. The President gave directives to continue working on developing the tax system in a way that helps reduce the size of the informal economy and integrate it into the national economy to achieve tax justice, prevent tax manipulation and streamline procedures.
The President was also briefed on the achievements of committees to end tax disputes and tax appeal committees.The President directed to swiftly settle all open and old tax files during the current year.
The President followed-up on the current and future release rates of goods from ports nationwide and their exit to the markets. The President directed to expedite the completion of the release of all goods that arrived to ports and the completion of all procedures related to the governance of the customs release system.
The international standards that have been applied in the customs system for imported goods were also reviewed, within the governance of the import process, especially with regard to reducing the customs release time to keep pace with international rates and standard. This is in addition to the application of the comprehensive risk system in the Customs Authority, as well as following-up on imported commodities present in the ports.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of The Presidency, The Arab Republic of Egypt.
