Amendments to government service fees law introduce steep hike in cost of nationality applications, weapons licenses

In an effort to generate more revenue streams in the state budget, Parliament approved amendments to the law regulating the fees imposed on a number of government services on Tuesday.

The amendments to Law 147/1984 are the first to be introduced in almost 10 years, according to a parliamentary report viewed by Mada Masr. The steepest increases were implemented on the application processes for Egyptian nationality, which increased two hundredfold, and to license weapons, which increased a hundredfold.

The fees on car and driving licenses, which are the the government services that contribute the most to the state budget due to their widespread nature, were also increased under the new amendment. A new fee was also introduced on the issuance of new phone lines and monthly bills, excluding prepaid phone services.

Parliament changed the government-proposed amendment, which initially stipulated that the revenues generated from all government service fees would go toward the state budget. In its report, Parliament noted that this measure would have contradicted another article in the same law, which allocates five percent of government service fees to "compensate martyrs," without defining who would be covered by the fund, or the specific mechanisms that will be used to compensate them. Parliament also rejected a government suggestion to raise fees on documentation for employment abroad or for domestic employment in a foreign company.

As for cars, the amendments introduce a distinction between fees on new car licenses and the renewal of existing car licenses. The table below shows the new fees after the amendments:

The increase in government service fees comes amid government efforts to reduce the state budget deficit by cutting energy subsidies and introducing a value added tax. On Tuesday, Parliament approved the state budget law for Fiscal Year 2018/9, which will begin in July.  The budget targets a deficit of 8.4 percent of GDP, which is lower than the 9.8 percent expected at the end of the current year.

According to the new state budget, the government is projecting revenues from fees on government services — excluding cars — to generate LE6.8 billion in the coming fiscal year. The budget also projects that fees on weapon licenses will generate around LE1 billion, which is 1,000 times more than the LE1 million projected for the current fiscal year.