Magdy Abdel Aziz, head of the Egyptian Customs Authority, said that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s decision to order an increase on the prices of some imported goods “is very important”.
In a phone call with privately-owned Al-Assema TV channel on Monday, Abdel Aziz said, “the decision on raising prices seeks to protect the national product”.
It also “protects the national industry," said Abdel Aziz. "It also guarantees the fulfillment of Egypt’s international commitments.”
Egypt has raised tariff rates on a wide range of imports, the official Gazette said on Sunday, the latest effort by authorities to curb dollar spending on imports as the country struggles through a currency crisis.
The official Gazette published a list of hundreds of products ranging from food and clothes to toiletries and electric equipment. The new tariffs will be implemented on Monday, February 1.
It has already taken other measures to curb imports and aims to reduce its import bill by 25 percent in 2016 from US$80 billion in 2015.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
