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Egypt reduces insurance fees for workers

Written by Egypt News Sunday, 22 March 2009 Egyptian government is studding the possibility to reduce the sums of money paid by workers and employers for their insurance in light of the new amendments to the draft Law on Social Insurance
After being studied, these amendments will be submitted to the Egyptian People's Assembly and the Shoura Council.
According to these amendments, workers and their companies should pay 20% of their fixed and variable wages rather than 40%, especially as the last ratio had pushed many employers not to pay for the insurance of their employees or to pay for it as if their workers got a different wage that the real one.

Chairman of Egypt’s Committee on prices and wages at the National Salary Council, Wagdi al-kerdany explained that workers would no longer pay 17% of their salary, but 7%, while their company would pay the remaining 13% instead of 23%.

Al kerdany said these ratios were the same as in the rest of the world, adding that they would encourage employers and workers to join the insurance umbrella and would increase insurance proceeds.
He also affirmed that the Government, in light of the Global Economic Crisis , agreed to the requests from the chambers of tourism and commerce to reduce these percentages and to follow the example of what happened when the tax on commercial and industrial profits was amended
He said the Egyptian government began to take positive steps to ensure as few dismissals as possible to keep the employment rate in the tourism sector unchanged.
Also, al-kerdany said that the Egyptian Tourism Ministry sent official letters to the five chambers of tourism calling on them to prepare a formal payroll of workers in this sector so that it could then be submitted to Egypt’s Ministry of Finance.
For its part, the Egyptian Ministry is studying the possibility of contributing by partially paying the workers' salaries in light of the current economic crisis.
The National Democratic Party (NDP) Economic Committee has to form a committee to monitor the implications of the Global Financial Crisis on economic sectors and to prepare a paper to be put forward during the annual conference of the party, scheduled for the end of this year.

The sources described the secretariat's decision as a thermometer measuring the government's performance and determining how good it is at taking the necessary decisions to limit the effects of the crisis.
They revealed that the committee itself was preparing a study with all the solutions to address the crisis, and that it would discuss the possibility of setting up a fund to help faltering tourist facilities.



EGYPT NEWS