Capital gains tax to balance between state's and taxpayers' rights - finance minister

Wednesday 08-04-2015 07:42 PM
Capital gains tax to balance between state's and taxpayers' rights - finance minister

A man rests at his desk at the Egyptian stock market in Cairo, November 25, 2012. Egyptian share prices plunge, with the benchmark index losing nearly 10 percent in the first trading session since President Mohamed Mursi ignited a political crisis by expanding his powers. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih

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CAIRO, Apr 8 (Aswat Masriya) - The bylaws of the new tax imposed on capital gains and dividends have been issued after "social dialogue with... stakeholders," said the Finance Minister on Wednesday.

Minister Hany Kadry Dimian added in a statement that issuing the bylaws was time-consuming for them to come out in a framework which would contribute to the stability of dealings in the stock market and achieve balance between the state's and the taxpayers' rights.

The new tax's bylaws were issued on Tuesday, after nine months of adopting the new law. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had approved the law last July, imposing a 10 percent tax on capital gains and stock dividends.

Egypt's stock market has long been exempt from taxes on gains. Traders in the market have pushed for cancelling the newly issued tax.

The stock market's indexes have witnessed a sharp decline in the past weeks amid regional political turmoil. Traders were also awaiting the release of the bylaws for capital tax.

The overall market capital of Egypt's stock market rose by 1.2 percent in the first quarter of 2015 reaching 506.2 billion Egyptian pounds, despite a variance in the performances of the benchmark index and broader indexes, according to a quarterly report on the stock exchange issued last week.

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