Egypt is considering temporarily reintroducing a stamp duty on stock market transactions after the tax was frozen in 2014, two finance ministry sources told Reuters on Thursday. The comments come a day after the International Monetary Fund released the details of its $12 billion, three-year agreement to support a wide-ranging programme to reform Egypt's ailing economy and restore financial stability.
The agreement revealed that Egypt had committed to imposing either a capital gains tax or a stamp duty on stock market transactions by the 2017/18 fiscal year.
"We are studying temporarily re-imposing a stamp duty on stock market transactions pending the return to a capital gains tax, which has been postponed since May 2015," one of the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The source did not say when the levy might be reinstated.
Amr al-Munayer, a senior finance ministry official, told Reuters no law to reinstate the duty was in the works "at this time."