Egyptian Chamber of Tourist Commodities Director Mohamed al-Qattan said the government has begun to limit the proliferation of unlicensed bazaars that sell commodities to tourists, as those bazaars do not pay sales taxes.
According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, purchases by tourists constitute 18 to 22 percent of tourism income in Egypt estimated at US$2 billion per year.
Consequently, the sales tax percentage of this total income should be LE1.1 billion, whereas the actual amount collected by the Tax Authority does not exceed LE110 million, or 10 percent of that total.
“There are 20,000 bazaars selling commodities to tourists, only 1600 of which are registered and have licenses,” al-Qattan explained.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
