The fact that we won’t ask for a new loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), with the final tranche set for July, has made me the happiest man in the world!
All statements made by ministers of the economic group confirm this, and so this should bring happiness for us and the government!
And it will bring happiness to us, because the Egyptian by nature only borrows only when compelled to do so, and when he is in debt, he spends the night thinking of ways to pay off the debts quickly!
And it will bring happiness to the government, because it indicates the economy ability to balance without needing to ask for more loans from the IMF, even if it’s for just one dollar!
When our officials denied the need for a new loan, they stressed that our relationship with the IMF would not be interrupted and explained the nature of the new relationship.
It will be a relationship of a different kind, based not just on lending by the IMF and borrowing for us, but instead on requests for technical assistance, not financial, from departments specialized in assistance of a technical nature, especially in customs and taxes!
I assume that the fund will be a great service for us, if it knows how to give us the technical assistance that makes our tax issues controlled. This issue is looking for those who can control it and ensure that the state gets its right to any profit achieved by all employers!
I can provide more than one proof that our tax file is still unregulated. Perhaps the nearest evidence is Education Minister Tarek Shawki’s complaint before the Planning and Budget Committee of the Parliament that the Education ministry’s budget is short.
And the complaint of Health Minister Hala Zayed of the very same issue, before the Committee itself, mere hours after Shawky’s complaint!
The Education Minister discussed the need for LE11 billion urgently, otherwise the ministry will be on the verge of closing, and the Health Minister was talking about the need for LE33 billion urgently as well, otherwise her ministry wouldn’t fare any better!
It seems that a country where two different ministers complain of critically short budgets, is a country where it’s taxes know no control, as revenues from regulated taxes are enough to pay for public services and more.
