PA will today witness a new debate between Chancellor Gawdat el-Malt, Chairman of the Central Auditing Agency (CAA), and Dr. Youssef Boutros Ghali, Minister of Finance. Malt will present his report on the performance of the administrative bodies of the government for the fiscal year 2007/2008. Sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm that CAA has rejected a proposal by the Tax Department of the Ministry of Finance to write off through new legislation the late due taxes of the state-owned newspapers that amount to LE 6.164 billion.
The Tax Department had agreed to collect the taxes promptly as of 2005, but did not cease to claim the late taxes that were due before that date, as this requires certain litigation, given the difficult financial situation of those newspapers. CAA said those taxes were already collected by the newspapers from third parties to be paid on their behalf to the Tax Department and can therefore not be written off, as this money does not belong to the newspapers. CAA also said that the private sector has LE 29.330 billion in late due taxes, constituting 55.5% of the total late taxes.
It said the final accounts of the administrative bodies for the fiscal year 2007/2008 showed irregularities in granting licenses for the steel and cement factories, as three steel factories got licenses worth LE 487.9 million without specifying any terms payment. Also 15 cement factories still have to pay LE 28 million for their licenses. Amir Rizq, head of the Final Accounts of the Ministry of Finance, said the Ministry did not receive any new comments from CAA on the performance of the various government sectors in 2007/2008. He told Al-Masry Al-Youm: “International norms and the general State policy calculate a budget deficit pro-rata to GNP, whereas CAA calculates it in absolute terms.”
