No increase in the prices of most imported goods is expected as a result of raising the price of the customs US dollar, Ahmed Shiha, a member of the Importers Division of the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce, said, stressing that monopolists are the promoters of price hike rumors.
“Most of our imports are exempt from customs and more than 85 percent of exported imports are exempt from customs,” he added, during a telephone interview with the “Al-Masry Effendi” program, broadcast on the al-Mehwar satellite channel.
Shiha said”all raw materials, intermediate goods, production requirements and production lines are exempt from customs,” continuing: “All goods that come from Europe, and under the COMESA and GAFTA agreements are exempt from customs, so more than 85 percent of imports do not have any customs values.”
“Monopoly is the reason for all the crisis we are experiencing, from raising prices and others,” Shisha said, pointing out that all products are monopolized, whether cars, foodstuffs or electrical appliances.
The Ministry of Finance set the price of the customs dollar for June at LE18.64, as the Egyptian Customs Authority issued a circular, on Wednesday, with foreign currency rates throughout June.
The announced rates took effect starting Wednesday and were distributed to various ports across Egypt.
The decision to raise the customs dollar price will have direct consequences on the increase in the prices of some commodities in the market, and will be reflected in the continued rise in monthly inflation rates, Mohamed al-Bahy, head of the Tax and Customs Committee at the Federation of Egyptian Industries, told Al-Masry Al-Youm.
The economy is going through an exceptional circumstance, and it would have been more useful to take into account the stability of prices in the markets, he added.
Raising the custom dollar price will affect the prices of mobile devices, which are expected to rise by about 10 percent, Mohamed Talaat, head of the Communications and Mobile Division at the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce, said.
Talaat added that about 97 percent of mobile devices are imported from abroad, and only 3 percent of consumption is manufactured locally.
