Egypt’s parliament approved on Monday a draft law imposing “financial development fees” on contracts related to the buying, selling, loaning or renewing the contracts of Egyptian or foreign athletes and coaches.

The new law states that a fee of 3 percent will be imposed on contracts lower than EGP 1 million, and 4.5 percent on contracts from EGP 1 to 2 million.

The law also stated that a fee of 6 percent will be imposed on contracts worth EGP 2 to 3 million, 7.5 percent on contracts worth EGP 3 million to 5 million, and 9 percent on contracts worth more than EGP 5 million.

The committee also released a new article imposing a 10 percent tax on contracts worth more than EGP 10 million, and the games' association will be responsible for collecting the newly imposed taxes and sending them to the tax authorities before registering the contracts, according to parliament’s statement.

Finance Minister Mohamed Maait told parliament’s budget and planning committee on Sunday morning that the draft law comes out of necessity and aims to contain the disastrous impact of the international economic crisis caused by the spread of the coronavirus.

“Please know that a finance minister is not a magician and he does not have a magic wand to procure financial resources,” said Maait, adding that “we as a government have a lot of duties such as offering subsidised goods and spending on services, and in this respect we seek to generate new financial resources as long as these will not be a new burden for ordinary citizens.”

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