Egypt Bourse Starts Stamp Tax Today Amid Worries

Egypt’s Central Clearing, Depository and Registry house (MCDR) will start today collecting the recently-approved stamp tax on Egyptian stock exchange’s daily buying and selling transactions.

As pursuant to the recently-approved draft, the stamp tax shall be imposed on the Cairo bourse’s daily selling and buying transactions at 0.001. The stamp tax shall be also applied on the advertisements at 20%.

Capital market experts alongside EG-Finance,  Division of Securities, Egyptian Capital Market Association (ECMA) and Egyptian Investment Management Association (EIMA) are urging the decision makers in Egypt to reconsider imposing the stamp tax on the bourse daily transactions amid the current sharp decline in the volumes and values of trades driven by the political and economic turbulence.

They further said imposing the stamp tax on the daily transactions will increase the burden on the investors by 40-65%. Accordingly, heavier burdens will likely drive the investors to exit the market soon.