Tax continued to top talk show coverage last night following the House granting initial approval to a package of tax and duty hikesand ahead of today’s discussion of the proposed income tax amendments. The nation’s talking heads also brought us coverage of the Turkish elections and the latest on the National Dialogue.

Budget Committee chair takes to the airwaves: House Budget Committee chairman Fakhry El Feky joined Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 31:11) and Kelma Akhira (watch, runtime: 34:03) to discuss the government’s tax proposals. “The majority of MPs see that the new amendments won’t affect the majority of Egyptians,“ he said. Secretary General of the Egyptian Taxation Society Yasser Moharem also joined Kelma Akhira to weigh in on the changes (watch, runtime: 2:53). “We could have gone without these amendments [the increased stamp tax and development fees] and instead establish other legislation that can bring in much higher revenues,” Moharem said. We have the details in this morning’s news well, above.

MPs need to be more involved: El Hekaya’s Amr Adib (watch, runtime: 1:52) called on MPs to be more involved with the government’s spending plans, saying that the House needs to supervise the government’s budget allocations.

The talking heads gave Erdogan’s win positive coverage: Turkish President Recep Tayyib Erdogan yesterday secured 52% of the votes during the country’s presidential elections, securing five more years in office. Amr Adib praised the vote, which he said was worthy of “appreciation and respect” (watch, runtime: 1:05), and interviewed Al Arabiya’s correspondent in Turkey who joined Erdogan’s supporters in the streets celebrating his win (watch, runtime: 7:46). Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa also covered the celebrations among Erdogan’s supporters (watch, runtime: 5:43) while Kelma Akhira’s Lamees El Hadidi called Turkey an important player in the region and noted the recent warming of ties with Egypt (watch, runtime: 2:53).

Could Egypt finally be getting freedom of information legislation? The National Dialogue will hold asession discussing a proposed Freedom of Information Act when it resumes sessions next Sunday. Ahmed Ragheb, assistant rapporteur for the dialogue’s Human Rights Committee, told Masa’a DMC that the bill covers the circulation of official documents, without providing further details (watch, runtime: 9:55).

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