The Egyptians were short of nothing but a tax on car radio, and they are burdened to suffocating with various taxes and different fees, which drain the budgets of families and no one knows where the proceeds go.

The mockery of the multiplicity and multiplicity of taxes imposed amounted to the pioneers of social networking sites calling on the government to impose taxes on the air, as "there is only breath that is not taxed", after imposing taxes and fees on everything until marriage and divorce.

A few days ago, the House of Representatives Plan and Budget Committee approved a bill on fees for radio and wireless devices, which includes raising the fees in a fictitious way, as it rose from 1.4 pounds to 100 pounds (the dollar is about 16.8 pounds).

Social media platforms caught on with a mockery of the new tax, and car owners saw that the government wanted to finance the budget deficit of Maspero (the state radio and television building) from their pockets, after statements to members of the Parliament's Plan Committee that the new tax would cover two months of Maspero's employees ’salaries.

The number of Maspero employees - according to the latest census - is about 35,000, and the government is trying to reduce the number by stopping appointments and encouraging early retirement, according to previous statements to the Minister of Information Osama Haikal, in which he said that the number will reach 29,000 this year.

Deficit financing

The number of private cars in Egypt is about 5 million cars, according to a statement of the Insight Center for Statistics last January, according to official data.

But the tax decision extends to taxis and transport vehicles too, amid estimates that the proceeds will reach about 500 million pounds annually, about half of its revenue goes to the National Media Authority, which oversees Maspero.

Maspero's debts amount to about 36 billion pounds, according to the representative of the National Information Authority, Gamal El Shaer.

Anger and sarcasm

With the anger at these fees, car owners' estimates of the importance of the car's radio itself varied, so accountant Hossam Attia says that car radio is not a luxury but rather essential, adding in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net that "the first is to compel luxury car owners to pay fees on the unique luxuries in them, not that The owner of a small and cheap car pays the same radio usage fees that a car owner will pay in hundreds of thousands of pounds. "

As for the teacher Zainab Mustafa, she appears - in her talk to Al Jazeera Net - a refusal to pay tax on a device that she does not use, as she uses the car's radio to listen to songs via a memory stick (flash memory), instead of listening to "Reggae broadcasters directed government radio, aimed at filling hours Broadcasting anything, often with government statements that are incompatible with reality, "she said.

News published 4 years ago indicates that the government was planning to implement this tax in mid-2016, but postponed it for undisclosed reasons.

The president of the National Media Authority Hussein Zain explained that the content presented on the radio changed and evolved from what went on, thus costing the radio huge amounts of money that required doubling the tax, to provide a strong media facing external challenges, adding in press statements that "the application of a tax on hearing the radio exists in all the world ".

A failed plan

In this context, the former Secretary of the Supreme Press Council, Qutb Al-Arabi, believes that the government with this tax - which was imposed since the sixties and whose value has now multiplied dozens of times - aims to finance the financial deficit in Maspero from the pockets of the Egyptians.

Al-Arabi stressed that the philosophy of paying the tax in the whole world is based on the fact that payment must be matched by a service, which is not practically present in such a tax, because "Egyptians do not benefit anything from the official media of the state."

Al-Arabi said in his interview with Al-Jazeera Net that "Maspero was designed for a system other than the current system, although it is an extension of it, and he seeks to employ him for the same goal, which is polishing power, not expressing the concerns of the people."

He explained that attempts to revive Maspero by pumping financial support in it from the pockets of the Egyptians to clone the sixties, "will certainly fail in the era of the open skies", pointing out that the global media is currently trying to "ease restrictions and provide information freely and take care of people's concerns, which makes Maspero with his current speech in competition Difficult".

Al-Arabi stressed that the development of Maspero must begin with a bold decision to restructure it and reduce the number of its many channels and broadcasts, to provide advanced content that can compete with private channels and the Arab and international media.

He added, however, that "Maspero will not be reformed at present, because it is part of the military symbols of the state, because the regime considers it a necessity to market its policies, so he will be retained while he is staggering and dying that thousands of pensions (retirement) will be discontinued with a cessation of employment, until he gets old and drops on his own, except if A democratic system came, and then he would be able to improve his employment and structure. "

Power tongue

The Egyptian television service was launched in the early sixties of the last century under the regime of the late President Gamal Abdel Nasser, while radio preceded the TV by a quarter of a century, and Maspero with his broadcasts and TV channels is considered to be the tongue of power since the sixties until today, according to Egyptian media observers asserting that this is the reason for spoiling his supposed role as an expression of Funding people for their budget.

Former Supreme Council of Media Chairman Makram Mohamed Ahmed said - in previous television statements - that the Egyptian media addresses one recipient, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

Two days ago, the writer and journalist close to the regime, Abdel Halim Kandil, criticized the state’s control of the media. He said in press statements, “We cannot talk about the role of the media unless it is edited and its independence is guaranteed. .

He added, "Let us admit that we are in a new and different world where confiscation and prevention are not valid, and we must spread the truth instead of spreading fraud, so that we can discuss things openly, clearly and put forward solutions. We must allow the media to discuss all matters and raise thorny issues."