Some 500 Egyptian companies have produced six million e-invoices on Egypt’s new system since its first phase was launched on 15 November 2020, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said on Wednesday.

Egypt’s new e-invoice system was kicked off over two phases, the second on 15 February 2021.

The system is part of Egypt’s new tax management system, started within the framework of Egypt’s Vision 2030. The strategy is meant to boost state revenues, combat tax evasion, ease procedures for taxpayers, and enhance spending to improve people’s living conditions and enhance the quality of services.

It is also meant to achieve tax justice, merge informal economy activities into the formal one, upgrade Egypt’s taxing system, and improve the efficiency of tax examination.

Maait urged companies registered with the Centre of Major Taxpayers, affiliated to Egypt’s Tax Authority (ETA), to join the system before the deadline of the second phase scheduled for 15 May, affirming that it’s a mandatory action.

He added that 10 companies were referred to the public prosecution for being unregistered.

Head of the ETA Reda Abdel-Kader said that joining the e-invoice system reinforces companies’ tax positions by classifying them in the low-tax risk group.

Moreover, the system facilitates VAT settlements among companies, upgrades invoice exchange between them, reduces transactions cost, allows the remote tax examination for companies, and eases the process of preparing and submitting tax returns, according to Abdel-Kader.

He added that subscribing to the e-invoice system is mandatory to deal with ministries, economic authorities, public sector companies, the public business sector, and all state bodies, as decreed by the prime minister.

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Egypt targets increasing its public revenues through a package of procedures, including expanding its tax base and diversifying the sources of income.

The government targets raising tax revenues by 18.3 percent in FY 2021/22, which starts on 1 July.

Egypt's revenues during the first half of the current fiscal year increased by 16 percent on an annual basis, according to Ministry of Finance figures.

This fiscal year, Egypt's revenues jumped to EGP 452.9 billion (from July to December 2020), up from EGP 390.5 billion recorded in the same period of FY 2019/20, reported the finance ministry.