Law 148 of 2026: a unified departure fee and a cement levy

Executive summary

• Law No. 148 of 2026, amending certain provisions of Law No. 147 of 1984 imposing the state financial resources development fee, was published in the Official Gazette, issue No. 30 bis (A), on 28 July 2026 and applies from the day following its publication.
• It replaced items 5 and 19 of article 1 of Law No. 147 of 1984.
• EGP 35 on every tonne of cement produced — the base is output, not sales.
• Factories must remit the fee to the Egyptian Tax Authority (the ETA) on what they produce.
• The departure fee is unified at EGP 100 by removing the reduced rate of EGP 50 that applied to foreigners arriving for tourism to seven governorates.
• The exclusion for drivers of public passenger and goods vehicles and crews on cross-border routes or trucks remains.

The law is one of seven tax laws published in the same issue of the Official Gazette; all seven are reviewed together in Egypt's July 2026 tax package.

The two replaced items

Item 5: on leaving the territory of the Republic: EGP 100 on leaving the territory of the Republic, excluding drivers of public passenger and goods vehicles, Egyptian and foreign, and workers on routes or trucks that habitually cross the borders of the Arab Republic of Egypt.

Item 19: producer of cement of all kinds: EGP 35 on every tonne of cement produced, and factories are obliged to remit the value of the fee due to the Egyptian Tax Authority on the cement they produce.

The base is production, not sale

This is the feature the whole provision turns on. The text says "on every tonne of cement produced", and obliges factories to remit "on the cement they produce". The event that triggers the fee is production — not sale, not delivery, not collection.

In our accounting view, three practical consequences follow.

The fee is due on unsold output. A tonne that goes into closing inventory has already triggered the fee, although no revenue has yet arisen on it.

The fee is a cost of production, not a selling expense. It attaches to the unit produced, so it is absorbed into production cost and enters the valuation of closing inventory rather than distribution costs. Treating it as a selling expense takes it out of closing inventory, so the current period bears a levy on output not yet sold.

Standard cost per tonne changes. Any standard costing schedule or pricing built on cost per tonne needs updating by the amount of the fee, or margin will read higher than it is.

Who remits it

The text places the obligation on the factories, on what they produce. It sits with the producer, not with the distributor or the purchaser, and does not wait on a sale being completed.

The departure fee — unification is the amendment

The fee has been in place for years. The amendment neither introduced it nor raised its general amount. What it did was unify it at EGP 100 by removing the reduced rate.

The previous text was enacted by Law No. 31 of 2023, published in the Official Gazette, issue No. 24 (supplement), on 15 June 2023:

EGP 100 on leaving the territory of the Republic, except for foreigners arriving for the purpose of tourism only to the governorates of Cairo, Giza, the Red Sea, South Sinai, Luxor, Aswan and Matrouh, for whom the fee shall be EGP 50.

The new text drops that category, so the fee is EGP 100 in all cases, leaving only the exclusion for workers in cross-border transport.

Its effect in one figure: a foreign tourist who paid EGP 50 on departure now pays EGP 100 — twice what they paid.

The Head of the Egyptian Tax Authority has explained that the fee has existed for years and that the amendment is intended to unify its amount and simplify how it is applied, in response to requests from the tourism sector.

The text excludes drivers of public passenger and goods vehicles, Egyptian and foreign, and workers on routes or trucks that habitually cross the borders of Egypt. The exclusion does not depend on nationality: the text names Egyptians and foreigners together.

What this requires

• For cement producers: tie the computation to the production quantity record rather than to sales invoices, and set the remittance cycle to the ETA against output.
• In the accounts: charge the fee to production cost and include it in unit cost when valuing closing inventory.
• In pricing: update standard cost per tonne by the amount of the fee before any review of selling margins.
• For tour operators: update programme pricing and existing contracts to reflect EGP 100 rather than EGP 50 for each traveller to whom the reduced rate applied.
• For cross-border road transport operators: schedule the staff to whom the departure fee exclusion applies and document their status.

The firm's Tax Department reviews the computation of the fee and its accounting effect on production cost and inventory valuation.

Mahmoud Nassef — Chartered Accountant (Egyptian Register), Founder Partner

Member, Egyptian Society of Accountants & Auditors
Member, Egyptian Tax Society
Member, Egyptian Society for Public Finance and Taxation

Partner profile · Book a consultation

Disclaimer: This bulletin is prepared for general information on the legislation in force at the date of its publication. It does not constitute a professional opinion or tax or legal advice on any particular matter, and it should not be relied upon in place of advice based on an examination of the circumstances of each case. Nassef & Partners International accepts no responsibility for any action taken, or refrained from, in reliance on its contents. The positions stated remain subject to subsequent legislation and decisions.