American transportation service provider Uber would now have to pay value-added tax to continue its operations in Egypt, Abdel Azeem Hussein, head of the tax administration announced on 18, February 2019.  

According to information reported by Reuters, the new measure should affect other companies in the same line of operations in the country.

This should ease tensions between the American company and its Egyptian workers. The latter brought Uber and its main competitor Careem to justice accusing them of using private cars as taxis.

The enforcement of a 14% VAT tax could impact the prices of services offered by the company that has come into conflict with many governments, in Europe notably.

Let’s note that Egypt is the firm’s largest market in the Middle-east with about 157,000 drivers estimated in 2017 and 4 million users since its launch in 2014.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou