New unified tax law provisions won’t affect confidentiality of bank accounts- CBE

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said in a statement that new proposed draft law amending some provisions of the Unified Tax Law submitted by the government is only related to exchanging information with foreign tax authorities and not with the Egyptian Tax Authority for local purposes.

CBE indicated the new provisions will be implemented as part of the international agreement for all member states of the Global Forum for Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, which was established by the G20 and the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), to which Egypt joined in 2016.

The Central Bank of Egypt confirmed that the aforementioned draft law does not affect the confidentiality of bank customers’ accounts which the Central Bank and Banking System Law has set strict guarantees to protect them.

It added that the banking system law states that it is not permissible to view or give data about any party, directly or indirectly, except with a written permission from the owner of the account, treasury, or from one of the legatees or based on a court ruling.

The Central Bank calls on the media and social networking sites to be accurate in what is being circulated of news and to ensure its authenticity from its official sources, in order to avoid the spread of rumours that harm citizens and the national economy.