President Sisi directs govt to continue releasing goods stuck at ports

CAIRO – 3 January 2023: Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al Sisi directed the government on Tuesday to swiftly continue releasing all goods stuck at the country's ports, as well as simplify all customs clearance procedures.

Sisi's directives came during his meeting with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli and Finance Minister Mohamed Maait, as well as other senior officials, to follow up on the progress made in releasing piled-up goods at ports nationwide, said Presidential Spokesperson Bassam Rady.

The spokesman added the meeting took up the financial performance indicators and the activity of customs and tax sectors of the Finance Ministry.

Maait reviewed the country's economic performance in the first half of the 2022/2023 fiscal year, which showed that the State was able to address global economic changes, absorb shocks, maintain the public budget's safe path, increase allocations for public investments and provide all basic goods.

The finance minister posted the president on the developments of the economic reform program backed by the IMF, especially as the government recently introduced amendments to the Competition Protection Law and approved the State Ownership Policy Document, which aims to maximize the private sector's role in the economic activity, through offering further investment opportunities in the next period.

The meeting touched on the progress of the implementation of the national economic reform program, supported by the International Monetary Fund.

The government seeks to achieve all targeted reforms in this regard, particularly recent steps to approve amendments to the Law on Protection of Competition and Prevention of Monopolistic Practices, as well as the ratification of the State Ownership Policy Document, which aims to maximize the role of the private sector in economic activity and offer it more investment opportunities to help strengthen the partnership between the state and the private sector in the coming period.

This is while taking into account that all financial and economic indicators achieved during the first half of the current fiscal year indicate achieving the various targets in this regard. The long-standing cooperation and partnership between the government and the IMF also include providing technical support to ensure that the financial policies followed are in line with the best international standards, thus contributing to attracting more foreign investments.

The meeting also reviewed the Ministry's projects, mainly in the sectors of tax and customs.

Sisi was briefed on the activation of the comprehensive automation system in the Tax Authority and developments of applying the electronic invoice system, the deadline for which has been extended to April 30. This is in addition to the actual operation of the electronic receipt, which complements with the electronic invoice system.

The meeting also followed-up on the developments of work mechanisms and initiatives to combat tax evasion, as well as the inclusion of the informal sector in those mechanisms, as well as the real estate disposal tax system and the performance of the e-commerce follow-up unit in the Tax Authority. The President gave directives to continue working on developing the tax system in a way that helps reduce the size of the informal economy and integrate it into the national economy to achieve tax justice, prevent tax manipulation and streamline procedures.

The President was also briefed on the achievements of committees to end tax disputes and tax appeal committees. The President directed to swiftly settle all open and old tax files during the current year.

Sisi was posted on the progress made in automating the tax system, along with the mechanisms for combating tax evasions.