Egyptian Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said there is now a “strategic trend” in the country to not rely on hot money coming in from abroad to buy local debt instruments.
And he explained during television statements: “During the period when the hot money problem passed, we learned this lesson 3 times in a row in 2018, 2020 and 2022, and the strategy of the state has become that this type of money cannot be relied upon. in any way. We supply production and processing.”
Maait emphasized that the current trend is focused on the need to attract foreign direct investment, which would not have been undertaken prior to spending on the infrastructure needed to attract this type of investment.
The finance minister added: “In the next phase, we want to focus more on attracting direct investment, and President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has announced a strategic goal of attracting $10 billion a year. It is true that market conditions are not suitable for this. time.”
According to unofficial estimates, “tens of billions of dollars worth of debt instruments left the Egyptian market, causing hard currency shortages during the periods specified by the finance minister.”
Maait denied reports that Egypt levies the highest tax rates in the world, pointing out that there are different types of taxes in Egypt that depend on the type and activity of the taxpayer.
Maite continued: “It has been said that we have one of the highest tax rates in the world, and this is not an accurate statement. It is not true that I have 25 types of taxes. We need to know who is the subject of the tax. .”
He added: “The government is engaged and intervening to solve the problem of any local, Arab or foreign investor, which is related to non-compliance with tax obligations.”
Source: money