Egypt's EGP 100 Departure Fee Is Not a New Charge, Tax Authority Chief Says

Travellers leaving Egypt through Hurghada or Marsa Alam are not facing a newly invented charge, the country's tax authority says: the departure fee has been on the books for years, and the latest amendment to the law standardises it at EGP 100.

Rasha Abdel Aal, Head of the Egyptian Tax Authority, said the latest amendments to the State Financial Resources Development Fee Law form part of a wider effort to develop and simplify the mechanisms for applying a number of existing fees, according to Daily News Egypt. The changes, she said, address areas where practical implementation had shown a need for greater clarity and consistency.

Her central point on the departure fee was that it is not a newly created levy. It has been applied for years, and what the amendment does is set one uniform figure rather than introduce a charge that did not exist before.

The clarification lands harder on this coast than most places in Egypt. Hurghada and Marsa Alam international airports are the Red Sea's two main gateways, and nearly every visitor who arrives on a charter or low-cost flight leaves through them again. Anything that touches the cost of flying out of Egypt is read here first as a change to the holiday bill, and second as a change to tax law.

Several things the report does not answer are worth flagging. It does not say when the standardised rate takes effect, what the fee was before the amendment, or whether it applies to departures by land and sea as well as by air. It also does not set out how or where the charge is collected, or whether any categories of traveller are exempt.