CAIRO: Egypt is considering temporarily reintroducing a stamp duty on stock market transactions after the tax was frozen in 2014, two finance ministry sources told Reuters on Thursday.
The comments come a day after the International Monetary Fund released the details of its $12 billion (Dh44 billion), three-year agreement to support a wide-ranging programme to reform Egypt’s ailing economy and restore financial stability.
The agreement revealed that Egypt had committed to imposing either a capital-gains tax or a stamp duty on stock market transactions by the 2017/18 fiscal year.
“We are studying temporarily re-imposing a stamp duty on stock market transactions pending the return to a capital-gains tax, which has been postponed since May 2015,” one of the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Egypt imposed a stamp duty on buyers and sellers in May 2013, collecting more than 350 million Egyptian pounds (Dh68.94 million; $18.77 million) in revenue before the levy was replaced in July 2014 by a 10 per cent capital gains tax.
Egypt then suspended the capital gains tax in May 2015 for two years. Investors and other market participants said it was discouraging business just as Egypt was struggling to recover from a plunge in confidence after a 2011 uprising and subsequent political upheavals.
The Higher Investment Council last year extended the suspension of capital gains tax for three years, until 2020.
“Now is the right time to impose a tax on the bourse, as it is in its best possible state. The tax rate will be much higher than it was previously, which was 1 pound per 1,000. We are now looking at the volumes and values of stock market transactions to make it fair,” another source said.
Egyptian stocks have risen to record highs since the IMF board approved the loan programme. More than 270 companies are listed on the Egyptian stock exchange and more than 500,000 investors are registered to trade there.
As part of efforts to improve its fiscal position, the government has pledged to impose new taxes, improve tax collection and cut spending.
