Egypt parliament approved on Tuesday a legislative amendment aiming to exempt Egypt’s Tahya Misr (Long Live Egypt) Fund from all kinds of taxes and fees.

Parliament Speaker Hanafy El-Gebaly said a final approval of the amendment will be taken only after it is revised in constitutional and legislative terms.

Article 8 of the fund’s law (84/2015) will be amended to exempt the Tahya Misr Fund from the income tax, the stamp tax, the value added tax, and the state resource development fees.

“The fund’s foreign donations and grants will be also exempted from custom duties and free zone fees,” said the amendment, adding that “all of these exemptions seek to help the fund carry out its development objectives and service projects.”

MP Tarek Hassanein said the Tahya Misr Fund’s projects aim to serve poor people, improve living conditions in slum areas, and establish important infrastructure projects in the area of drinking water and sanitary drainage.

The Tahya Misr Fund was established by President Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi in 2015 to help poor communities and needy villages in terms of implementing development projects, particularly in the two areas of housing and health.

MP Mohamed El-Wahsh, deputy chairman of the Health Committee, said the budget of the Tahya Misr Fund stands at EGP 6 billion and employs 16,000 workers.

“They work everywhere in poor villages and districts to help underprivileged citizens and implement social service initiatives,” said El-Wahsh, adding that “for this reason it is important that the fund gets full exemption from all taxes and custom duties to help it play its roles effectively.”

MP Mohamed Abdel-Moneim Imam said it is important that civil society organisations involved in implementing public projects for poor people also get exemptions from taxes and fees on an equal footing with the Tahya Misr Fund.

Alaa Abed, head of the Transport Committee, said exempting the Tahya Misr Fund from taxes and fees aims to help it have the money necessary to implement its social development projects.

https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/410107.aspx