RIYADH: Egypt has unveiled its “first step” in a new tax facilitation package aimed at enhancing investor relations and addressing economic challenges. 

The announcement, made by Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk, will see the introducution of measures designed to streamline the tax system, boost productivity, and foster growth through increased production and exports. 

This follows the earlier announcement by his predecessor in the post, Mohamed Maait, who revealed in January that the tax authority is close to completing a new draft income tax law. 

Speaking at a press conference attended by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Kouchouk highlighted that a simplified and integrated tax system will be implemented for businesses with annual revenues up to 15 million Egyptian pounds ($0.31 million), covering small and micro enterprises, startups, freelancers, and professionals. 

According to a post on the prime minister’s Facebook page, Kouchouk said: “We have started studying the challenges on the ground, and our decisions reflect our seriousness in meeting the needs of our partners in the tax community, and that we are continuing the ‘tax hearings’ and moving immediately with other packages of facilitations to stimulate the business community, with a focus on clarifying and defining the procedures and executive rules decisively so that we do not leave matters to personal estimates in the tax regions and offices; we are targeting a tangible improvement felt by the business community in the quality of tax services provided to them in the tax regions and offices.”

The minister of finance described the announcement as “the beginning of a new page” between the tax authority and the business community.

“We confirm that the partnership is rooted in trust between all parties, and that we will focus on the future, not the past, and we will provide fair and distinguished service to investors and financiers, explaining that we will focus on expanding the tax base, and ‘this ensures the interests of the state and investors and the ability to improve support and services for citizens’,” he added.

Efforts will be made to integrate informal economy projects into the formal sector using various facilitation techniques. Taxpayers can submit or amend returns for 2021 to 2023 without facing penalties. 

PARIS: Global oil demand grew at its slowest pace since 2020 in the first half of 2024 due to China’s economic slump, the International Energy Agency said Thursday, prompting the IEA to lower its full-year forecast.
Demand increased by 800,000 barrels per day in the first six months of 2024, compared to 2.3 million bpd over the same period in 2023, the IEA said in its monthly oil market report.
“The chief driver of this downturn is a rapidly slowing China, where consumption contracted y-o-y (year-on-year) for a fourth straight month in July,” the Paris-based agency said.
China is among the world’s top consumers and importers of oil, but the world’s second-biggest economy has struggled amid weak consumer spending, a property sector crisis and high unemployment.
The IEA also cited the country’s shift away from oil in favor of alternative energy.

Rising sales of electric vehicles are reducing demand for road fuel while the development of its vast high-speed rail network is restricting growth in domestic air travel, the IEA said.
Outside of China, it added, “oil demand is tepid at best.”
For the full year, global oil demand is forecast to grow on average by 900,000 bpd, some 70,000 bpd below the IEA’s previous estimate.
This will take total demand to almost 103 million bpd.
Oil prices have weakened this year over concerns about the global economic outlook.
This week, Brent North Sea crude, the international benchmark, fell below $70 per barrel for the first time since December 2021.
The fall in prices has prompted leading members of the OPEC+ oil cartel, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, to postpone a planned output increase and instead extend voluntary supply cuts until the end of November.
The IEA said the delay gives OPEC+ “some time to further evaluate demand prospects for next year” as well as the impact of output disruptions in Libya.
But with supply from non-OPEC+ nations rising faster than overall demand, the group “may be staring at a substantial surplus, even if its extra curbs were to remain in place.”