Egypt’s ITIDA mulls boosting export subsidies on IT services

Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), the IT arm of the Egyptian telecoms ministry, studies increasing the size of export subsidies on information technology services during the new financial year 2016-2017.

The agency will adopt a number of standards, principles, and measures related to increasing IT export subsidies, Asmaa Hosni, CEO of ITIDA, told Amwal Al Ghad on Monday.

The anticipated increase alongside the Valued-added tax (VAT) will play a significant role in boosting the allocations for each company operating in the IT sector, Hosni said.

Hosni added that ITIDA had no intentions to lift export subsidies on information technology services asserting that the agency had already paid due subsidies for the previous financial year 2015-2016.

Hosni further clarified that if any kind of delay occurred, it would be due to tech companies’ results being unaudited yet. The annual audit conducted by ITIDA includes a comparison between exports statistics for current and previous years to figure out the exact amount of subsidies every company should be granted.

ITIDA announced earlier this year the launch of  Export-IT Rebate programme for the sixth consecutive year with a budget of 40 million Egyptian pounds ($4.5 million).

ICT Egyptian companies can receive direct cash rebate amounting to maximum of 10-20 percent of their value added exports. The rebate value is calculated according to the exports from which the company obtained its cash value during 2014. The rebate maximum value  is  four  million  pounds  for  each  company,  pursuant  to  the  terms  and conditions of this year’s programme.

IT Rebate program was first launched in 2010, through which more than 121 ICT companies managed to get the program’s rebate of approximately 150 million pounds over the past five years. Total exports value of Egyptian companies, joining the program, amounted to about three billion pounds.