The Vice President of the Mobile Division at Cairo Chamber of Commerce Walid Ramadan announced on Friday that while applying governance procedures to the process of introducing mobile phones to the local market is a good thing, it requires implementing other procedures so that it does not negatively impact the market presently.
Ramadan added that implementing the decision in its current form has led to confusion in the local market, adding that mobile phone prices have witnessed an increase of between 10-30 percent, for various models.
This decision will lead to a decline in supply in the market, he said, which will push prices to rise as a natural reaction, expecting the results to be evident within a month from now.
Ramadan explained that if the decision was aimed at encouraging local mobile phone factories, there are other mechanisms that can be applied.
These companies currently get an advantage, he said, which is that the percentage of fees imposed on locally manufactured mobile phones reach about 25 percent, while the percentage reaches 38 percent on imports from abroad.
The Vice President of the Mobile Division called on using the division during the trial period of the “Telefony” application to make the necessary adjustments to adjust the system without having a negative impact on the market.
Ramadan also called to review the aspect of allowing each customer to carry one mobile phone from abroad, as passengers can bring back more than one mobile phone as gifts.
This also reduces the demand for the US dollar in the local market for the purpose of importing mobile phones, he noted.
He continued: “According to the current decision, the matter will be limited to one mobile phone, and thus the local demand for mobile phones will increase, which requires providing more dollar credits to meet the demand.”
The CEO of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, Mohamed Shamroukh confirmed on Thursday during a press conference held in the presence of representatives of the Customs Authority that issuing the new decisions aims to preserve the state’s rights.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
