Finance Min. to receive exporters' applications to join immediate cash payment initiative next Sunday

CAIRO - 7 March 2024: The Ministry of Finance will begin accepting applications from exporters wishing to join the seventh phase of the immediate cash payment initiative starting next Sunday.

 

The initiative, launched by the Cabinet with a value of LE 8 billion, covers files approved by the Export Development Fund until the end of September last year for exports until the end of June 2023.

 

In the sixth phase of the cash settlement, 1,558 companies received over LE 11.8 billion.

 

The disbursement for export burdens in the seventh phase will occur in two installments, the first on June 27, and the second on August 8, 2024.

 

"The disbursement will follow the same previous regulations, applying a 15 percent early payment discount for shipments until June 30, 2021, an 8 percent discount for shipments from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022, and no discount for shipments from July 1, 2022, onward," said Finance Minister Mohamed Maait.

 

Financial settlements or offsets will be made between the "Exporters Support" receivables and the state's receivables from taxes, customs, electricity, and gas, as explained by Maait.

 

The disbursement will be carried out through four banks (Banque Misr, the National Bank of Egypt, Banque du Caire, and the Egyptian Export Development Bank), according to Niveen Mansour, the Deputy Minister's Advisor for Financial Policies and Institutional Development.

 

Export companies have received LE 54.5 billion since the start of the initiatives to settle overdue payments for exporters at the Export Development Fund in October 2019 until now.

 

On Wednesday, the Cabinet approved the launch of the seventh phase of the immediate cash payment initiative to settle export burdens, with a value of LE 8 billion.

 

This phase aims to settle the overdue obligations of export burdens for exporting companies, covering export files at the Export Development Fund until those loaded until June 30, 2023, that are fulfilled by the end of September 2023, with an amount not exceeding LE 8 billion.

 

This came following a significant development as Egypt devalued its currency on Wednesday, resulting in the Egyptian pound's value decreasing to over 50 per dollar by midday, in contrast to the maintained rate of approximately 30.9 over the past year.

 

The CBE also raised interest rates by 600 basis points (6 percent), reaching 27.25 percent.