As part of the Egyptian government’s digital transformation agenda, the Egyptian Ministry of Finance announced a cooperation with IBM Consulting and SAP SE to help automate the Egyptian tax system.
With taxes accounting for more than 75% of total state revenues, the Egyptian Ministry of Finance launched a comprehensive national project to automate and digitalize Egyptian Tax Authority processes and procedures in order to integrate the informal economy into the formal economy, improve governance over tax returns, more accurately list the tax community, and expand the tax base, laying the groundwork for tax justice and fair competition.
Commenting on the achievement, Dr. Mohamed Maait, Minister of Finance, said: “The project is part of the digital transformation strategy that the government has launched to enhance the business ecosystem in Egypt. The modernization of the current taxation system is also part of the Unified Tax Law and the national vision to maximize public revenues.” Dr. Maait added, “The Ministry is keen to adopt advanced technology in its reform agenda which is why we selected IBM and SAP as partners for the modernization of the tax core system and empowering the e-payments strategy.”
IBM Consulting offers an integrated solution based on the SAP® Tax and Revenue Management for Public Sector package in partnership with its key partner SAP. The package is intended to provide the Ministry of Finance with a comprehensive business operations automation platform in order to assist simplify and automate its business processes into intelligent workflows, improve collaboration, and elevate citizen experiences. The system was successfully piloted with 10 tax offices in Greater Cairo and will be expanded throughout Egypt later this year.
IBM introduced IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation as part of the cooperation to integrate AI into the Ministry’s operations and give taxpayers, tax officials, and collectors with a smoother, more automated, and well-governed taxation trip. This can improve taxpayer submission accuracy, generate better understanding of the tax process, and allow the Ministry to focus on higher-value initiatives such as reducing tax evasion and increasing national tax revenue.
Marwa Abbas, General Manager, IBM Egypt, stated: “We are honored to be leading such a complex project that can help supports the national economy. IBM delivered a tailored solution to the Ministry of Finance in the short term, and based on the roll-out pilot experience, the outcomes were quite successful. We are confident that the integrated core taxation model can support Egypt’s digital transformation journey.”
Tamer Fahmy, Managing Partner, IBM Egypt Consulting stated that: “We are proud that the solution from IBM and SAP is providing the taxpayer community in Egypt with a robust and well governed platform through which all companies and taxpayers can pay off their duties and the Egyptian Tax authority can better govern and control tax collection. Our proven record in the local market, deep SAP consulting expertise and commitment to client success are among the reasons that led to the selection of IBM for such an important project to the national economy of Egypt.”
This is the latest example of IBM engaging with ecosystem partners such as SAP to assist clients in modernising their infrastructure and meeting the demands of the hybrid cloud age. Over the next three years, IBM plans to invest $1 billion on its partner ecosystem. This investment is already enabling partnerships to assist clients in migrating mission-critical workloads to the hybrid cloud.