Egypt facilitates import procedures

Egypt’s Ministry of Finance issued earlier this week new decisions aimed at facilitating import procedures in ports, and easing the burdens of importers who face difficulty in providing hard currency to release goods due to the application of the documentary credits system.

 

The decisions included allowing shipping agencies to transport imported goods from ports to warehouses and dry ports outside customs ports, giving a period of 4 months for food commodities before converting them to “disused,” and 6 months for non-food products.

 

The ministry noted that the most important decisions were to stop the collection of customs fines from those who are late in completing customs procedures due to the documents required from the relevant authorities, and to release within days of any shipments that completed customs procedures and are waiting for Form (4) to finance imports in coordination with the Central Bank of Egypt and the Ministry of Trade and Industry.