VAT bill to include some ICT services: Egypt minister

Egypt’s anticipated value-added tax bill will include communications and information technology services, said Amr El-Moneir, advisor for Minister of Finance for tax policy on Tuesday.

El-Moneir made these remarks during a meeting held with executives in global and local tech firms as well as representatives of Telecom Egypt and the three mobile operators; Vodafone, Etisalat, and Orange concerning value-added tax and its implications on the ICT sector.

This tax, which aims to include a number of communications and IT services, is not a brand new but rather a newer version of sales tax, El-Moneir said.

The meeting was held by the Communication and Information Technology Committee of the Egyptian parliament headed by Mai Al-Batran in the presence of representatives in Consumer Protection Agency.

Mobile operators and IT companies expressed concerns over tariffs, special exceptions, and exclusions of this tax. El-Moneir clarified that there would not be a big price hike but proposing such tax aims at including services like fixed-line internet and mobile internet into the countries tax service.

Value-added tax is also expected to achieve unification of taxes and reduce internal deficit.