Egyptian economic expert calls for suspending imports

Former President of Egyptian Assembly for Direct Investment Hany Tawfik blamed the increasing corruption for the current dollar crisis, saying that the tax sector suffers from corruption. He added that the Egyptian government obtains 300 million EGP from the taxes, while they should take over 900 million EGP.

The economic expert added, in an interview with “Arabs Today”, “Egypt’s formal economy is estimated by two trillion EGP, while the non-official economy is estimated by trillion EGP.” He stressed that such parallel economy poses serious threat against the economic situation in the country.

He stressed that the Egyptian government focuses on the workers of the governmental sector, while they ignore the non-official sector, adding that they do not work to merge it with recognized economy. He added, “I said before that the Ministry of finance of Prime Minister Sherif Ismail’s first government was the most failure government in Egypt’s history.”

He said that the tax sector suffers from a state of imbalance during the current period, saying that the government could control the dollar crisis if it implemented serious and strict policies. He called the government for not importing cars and other luxury goods. He said that such a measure could perform a major role to support the local industry.

He added that the Egyptian pound is still greater than its fair value, saying that international reports called for declining the pound’s value by 35 percent, while the Egyptian authorities have declined it by only 14 percent. He stressed the need for increasing production during the coming period to be ease demand on the dollar.

He praised the decision taken by Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi to allocate $ 200 million for small and medium projects, saying that the decision could be a step to merge the non-official sector with Egypt’s recognized economy