President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met on 18/1/2022with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait, Deputy Minister of Finance for Fiscal Policies Ahmed Kouchouk and Deputy Minister of Finance for Public Treasury Dr. Ihab Abu Aish.

 

 

 

The Spokesman for the Presidency stated that the meeting reviewed the draft budget for the fiscal year 2022-2023.

 

 

 

In this context, the President issued directives for the following:

 

-Raising the minimum wage to 2,700 EGP

 

 

-Endorsing two bonuses at a cost of about 8 billion EGP; the first is a periodic bonus for employees referred to by the Civil Service Law at 7% of the job wage; and the second is a special bonus for employees not referred to by the Civil Service Law at 13% of the basic salary

 

 

-Increasing the additional incentive for both those who are referred to and not referred to by the Civil Service Law, at a total cost of about 18 billion EGP

 

 

-Announcing the appointment of 30,000 teachers annually for a period of 5 years to meet the needs of developing the education sector

 

 

-Endorsing a new additional incentive to develop teachers in the education sector, bringing the total to about 3.1 billion EGP

 

 

-Allocating a sum of 1.5 billion EGP to finance the additional quality incentive for faculty members and their assistants at universities, centers, institutes and research bodies, in addition to financing the implementation of the new law on the salaries of full-time professors

 

 

-Incorporating the specializations of dentistry, physiotherapy and nursing into the previous decision to raise the remuneration for intern doctors, offered to them during the training period in the internship year.

 

 

 

The minister of finance presented the main objectives of the draft budget for the fiscal year 2022-2023.

 

The objectives include reducing the total deficit to about 6.3% of GDP, continuing to achieve a primary surplus of 1.5% of GDP, reducing the percentage of the debt of the general budget bodies to the GDP and increasing the wages item to about 400 billion EGP.

 

 

 

The Spokesman added that the President was also briefed on updates pertinent to the development of the tax system.

 

The President stressed the importance of the Ministry of Finance’s commitment to complete projects related to the automation of the Tax Authority, the electronic invoice system, and the automation and development of tax procedures before the end of the current fiscal year.

 

 

 

The meeting also reviewed current efforts to put into effect the unified organizational structure of the Tax Authority and start the integration of income and value-added missions in Cairo, as well as modern work systems followed in this framework.

 

This is in addition to measures to combat tax evasion, whether through tax campaigns or through the new electronic tax unit.

 

The meeting also reviewed the tax proceeds for the first half of the current fiscal year, which witnessed a growth rate of about 17% compared to the same period last year, and a 5% increase above the target.

 

The President underlined adopting all the necessary measures to facilitate dealing with financiers.

 

 

 

President El-Sisi  was also briefed on the main aspects of the strategy for developing the customs system and the most important programs and initiatives taken in this regard, including the application of the pre-registration system for shipments.

 

The President stressed the importance of taking into consideration applying all international standards related to the quality of goods imported to Egypt in this framework, in addition to start applying the pre-registration system for shipments at airports.

 

 

 

Efforts to develop customs release times were also reviewed as well as the result of the study recently conducted in this regard in cooperation with the World Bank.

 

The study showed a decrease in release times by about 50%. The President instructed continuing to work to reduce release times to reach the same day shipments arrive.

 

 

 

President El-Sisi was also briefed on the savings achieved for importers because of the automation and governance of the customs system, in addition to streamlining customs release procedures.

 

The President emphasized the importance of closely following up on the implementation of those initiatives and programs related to the development of the customs system.

 

Source: State Information Service Egypt