Egypt’s House of Representatives approved on Monday a legislative amendment suspending the tax on agricultural land for two more years.

A report by the House's Budget and Planning Committee said such tax has been suspended since June 2017 for three years. "But as this suspension will expire next June, the government decided to amend the law (113/1939) to extend the suspension for two years as an incentive for farmers and farming businesses to boost agricultural production and to relieve farmers from the financial burdens caused by the coronavirus," said the report.

Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said the suspension is important, particularly after the spread of the coronavirus. "When the government decided to introduce the three-year suspension in 2017, this was to help farmers contain the cost of the economic reform programme.

"But because of the coronavirus crisis, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi urged the government to extend the suspension for at least two years," he added, stating that "the total annual revenue of the tax on agricultural land stands at LE350 million."

Maait t revealed that in its meeting on 13 May, the cabinet endorsed a legislative amendment that will exempt taxpayers from paying arrears on income, real estate and VAT taxes, custom duties and social insurance subscriptions. "All of these come to mitigate the cost of the coronavirus on citizens," said Maait.