The Freedom and Justice Party’s economic committee head Abdallah Shehata is blaming the Central Bank for the dollar's rise against the Egyptian pound, saying the bank ran out of cash reserves after the revolution despite warnings from economic experts.
During a meeting with newspaper reporters Tuesday at the party's headquarters following a parliamentary block meeting, Shehata said Egypt will get a US$500 million loan from Turkey and a similar one from the African Bank to resolve the current crisis. He added that he will discuss projects that could help resolve Egypt's economic crisis during his meeting with Finance Minister Momtaz al-Saeed on Wednesday.
Shehata also said the committee rejects current tax laws, proposing instead an increase on real estate tax exemptions to LE2.5 million from LE2 million. The committee also rejected any new sales or income taxes without public dialogue first.
Referring to the committee's rejection of the Finance Ministry's Islamic bonds proposal, Shehata said the bonds were not based on Sharia and that renting government assets was dangerous. According to Shehata, the committee has the same opinion as the Islamic Research Academy.
“We called on Shura Council to discuss the law drafted by the party, which considered all economic and Islamic rules especially those on issuance of bonds," he said.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
