Arab governments are putting more taxes on the poor

LIFE IN EGYPTVAT gets more expensive by the month. Sitting in a café on a shady street, Mahmoud, a software developer, runs through the new taxes and fees. A value-added tax () was introduced at 13% in 2016, then hiked to 14%. A few years ago the government added a tax of ten Egyptian pounds ($0.55) to Mahmoud’s monthly phone bill. His cigarettes go up a pound or two whenever the treasury needs a puff of extra cash. Last time he got a new driving licence, it cost 15 times more than before.The one tax that has not soared is the one on his most valuable investment, a rental property he bought in 2016. He says it has appreciated by $100,000 or so, a 25% increase. But his annual property-tax bill has remained almost flat, at less than 1% of the apartment’s value.