Press Release
A Failed Government Has Nothing to do Except Issue Treasury Bills and Investment Certificates and Consume People's Wealth Unlawfully
(Translated)

On behalf of the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank of Egypt, has offered Treasury bills worth 7 billion pounds, to fund a sharp deficit in the state budget, estimated at 240 billion pounds of the total budget of 789 billion pounds on Thursday, 12/11/2014 CE. It is scheduled that the Central Bank will offer 3 billion pounds bills for a period of 182 days, and the other 4 billion for 364 days from the issuance date 11/12/2014 CE.

It does not stop at this point; which predicts a major economic catastrophe, as the Ministry of Finance plans to offer bills and treasury bonds totaling 214.5 billion pounds during the second quarter of the current fiscal year. Interests on treasury bills in the coming year are expected to amount 61 billion pounds and those on bonds to amount 61.6 billion pounds. Moreover, not to forget the Suez Canal investment certificates in which an amount of 60 billion pounds was collected at an interest rate of 12%, which these days the payment of the interests of the first installment, amounting 1.9 billion pounds is due. Undoubtedly these are Riba (usury) funds that cost the state its payment without any payoff from the new Suez Canal project which needs at least two years to have an economic impact on the state.

The government has also embarked on the imposition of property taxes, which their collection will begin in January next year, hoping to find another outlet to plug the budget deficit. Although the issued law on those taxes states for the tax exemption value for residential units which are resided by their owners is two million pounds. However, what happened is that the tax offices which are deployed in the provinces sent notifications to a large number of citizens who the value of their residential units in which they live is too far less than the declared tax exemption figure. This indicates that the current government wants to collect money from people in any way, even if it affects the poor people, as it imposes fees on their simple properties that do not exceed a ceiling and four "walls" sheltering them, at a time the law excludes clubs, hotels, police and the armed forces of that tax.

First: As for Treasury Bills, they are definitely prohibited, as they are confined to one of the two descriptions:

1.     It is an interest-bearing loan. Thus the loan (Qardh) is paid by the buyer (borrower) as a price for the bill and the interest is the difference of what paid by the buyer a price for the bill and the nominal value, which he takes at maturity. And this description is in fact constitutes a form of a loan that brings benefit, and it is a clear violation of the Shari'ah principle stating that every loan that attracts benefit is Haram (prohibited).

2.     It is the sale of deferred currency for a less valued current currency, and the deferred cash here is what the government pays at the due date of the nominal value of the bill. The current cash is what the buyer pays a price for the bill at the contract time. Hence this is the sale of one currency for another because the sale does not involve the bill itself as it is of no value, but in fact it is what the bill represents of cash. This description means that bill has included both types of Riba: Riba Al-Fadhl where equivalence has not been achieved and Riba Al-Nasiah which is a loan that lacks delivery at the same sitting of the contract.

Second: As for taxes:

It is not acceptable to impose taxes on people at random, as Islam has stated conditions for imposing them, and these conditions are Shari' conditions. The Khilafah "Caliphate" Rashidah State on the method of the Prophethood that Hizb ut Tahrir seeks to establish, this state cannot impose on the Muslims a tax that has no basis in Shariah such as property taxes, income tax, value added tax and inheritance tax and others that the state is mastering in inventing every day to eat people's wealth unlawfully.

Although we know that this government, like its predecessors does not investigate Halal and Haram in its dealings, and it does not pay attention to it and does not interest it; it has launched its horns to attack Islam and its rulings under the pretext of the war on terrorism. It even slaked in people's blood, disparaged their honors, threw those who oppose it in detention centers and prisons, and hired some "Sheikhs" in Dar al-Ifta and Al-Azhar to make Halal (permissible) what Allah has made Haram (forbidden) in fatwas of which Allah (swt) had not sent down any Sultan (authority). Nevertheless, we will not stop showing the Islamic ruling in all its actions to show people that such a regime cannot be tolerated, He (swt) says:

[وَإِذْ قَالَتْ أُمَّةٌ مِنْهُمْ لِمَ تَعِظُونَ قَوْمًا اللَّهُ مُهْلِكُهُمْ أَوْ مُعَذِّبُهُمْ عَذَابًا شَدِيدًا قَالُوا مَعْذِرَةً إِلَى رَبِّكُمْ وَلَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَّقُونَ]

"And when a community among them said, "Why do you advise [or warn] a people whom Allah is [about] to destroy or to punish with a severe punishment?" they [the advisors] said, "To be absolved before your Lord and perhaps they may fear Him."" [Al-A'raf: 165]

The country cannot have a correct economic revival except through the full application of the Islamic economic system in the framework of the application of the complete system of Islam without truncating portions thereof, under an Islamic state which is the Khilafah "Caliphate" Rashidah State on the method of the Prophethood. This is what the Lord of the worlds has obligated on us and this is what we must work for it. We must also reject the rotten capitalist system applied in the country which only bequeathed us humiliation and subordination to the Kaffir West and which is based on sucking the blood of the people and fatiguing them with the Shariah forbidden taxations. Furthermore it places a great burden on the state and people through debt service, which comes to more than 25% of government's spending, as well as opening the doors of the country for the Western colonialist's interventions, both politically and economically.

[يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَذَرُوا مَا بَقِيَ مِن الرِّبَا إِنْ كُنتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ فَإِنْ لَمْ تَفْعَلُوا فَأْذَنُوا بِحَرْبٍ مِنْ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ]

"And if you do not, then be informed of a war [against you] from Allah and His Messenger. But if you repent, you may have your principal - [thus] you do no wrong, nor are you wronged." [Al-Baqara: 279]

Sharif Zayed
Head of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
in Wilayah Egypt