Raising custom dollar for non-essential products to save employment: Min.

CAIRO- 2 December 2018: Minister of Finance Mohamed Ma’it said that the changes of the exchange rate and other economic factors affected some aspects of the Egyptian economy negatively, so the Ministry had to take actions to protect the employment and job opportunities.

The government targets to provide job opportunities and the employment can be affected by any change happens in the society so here comes the interference to prevent current jobs, the minister clarified.

He noted that as a result of the circumstance and movements in the economy, the custom dollar had to be reviewed.

“We must protect the objectives of the economy,” he said, stressing on the industry, the production and producers in Egypt, adding that we need to consider them when we take decisions to increase production and job opportunities.

The minister said that products that are fully produced abroad will deal with the exchange rate of dollar at CBE, noting that locally produced products must have benefits than the imported ones.

“That’s why we picked the decision to liberalize non-essential products to the exchange rate,” he explained.

“The main objective is to protect any job opportunity for any citizen from losing it.
We don’t want to close any factory because of the competitiveness,
We want to encourage assembling these products in Egypt and to produce them here,” he stated.

Ma’it said that this step will open the chance of local producers to establish factories and provide job opportunities in Egypt as the producer will get his components with custom dollar at $16.

Some of our factories export their locally produced products,according to Ma’it, noting that we had to distinguish them from others.

We are open for any changes, referring to excluding the price of Raw material of tobaccos will be at $16 as there are factories that produce in Egypt while exporting the Products that are fully produced abroad will be dealt at $17.9, current rate of dollar at CBE.

These products have no inflationary impact, the minister stated.

He added that It will differ and have an effect on the VAT.

This came during Ma’it’s speech at a conference held at the Ministry of Finance to declare the reasons behind the modifications of the custom dollar’s price the minister announced on Friday.

By the end of November, Ma’it announced raising the custom dollar to LE 18 for non-essential products, including: cars, some kinds of shoes, furniture and cigarettes.