Parliament approves amendment to the customs law

The House of Representatives approved a draft law to permanently amend some provisions of the Customs Law issued by the President of the Republic by Law No. 66 of 1963 and its amendments. The explanatory memorandum attached to the draft law clarified that in the context of the Egyptian government’s implementation of a package of tax and customs reforms, and when it was necessary to keep pace with the developments and changes taking place in the Egyptian economy, some amendments were made to the customs law in a manner that ensures the facilitation of trade movement more effectively and solving the problem of port congestion. With neglected goods and disposing of them for the benefit of the state, in addition to addressing the defects and shortcomings revealed by the practical reality, in order to tighten customs control and protect the Egyptian economy from illegal practices.The draft law includes amending the text of Articles 98-130 bis of the Customs Law and the draft law added “goods and supplies” to the text of Article 98 related to the temporary permit system to be more general and comprehensive so as not to release production requirements with a temporary release system such as containers and wrappers, and the goods are released with a temporary permit system, and that Unification of treatment and in addition to avoiding duplication in the application of special customs systems.The project for exemption stipulated that the importer deposit with the Customs Authority a guarantee of the value of the taxes and fees due and entrusted the Minister of Finance to issue a decision in agreement with the Minister of Trade and Industry to specify the cases, conditions, rules and regulations in which the temporary exemption takes place in return for depositing a guarantee of the value of the taxes and fees due and the cases in which no guarantee is deposited. The re-export shall take place within one year from the date of release, and the Minister of Finance or his authorized representative may extend this period for a period or periods not exceeding one year before exporting. The project emphasized the prohibition of disposing of the goods released under this system, even to a party that enjoys partial or total exemption, except after the approval of the Customs Authority, fulfillment of import rules, and payment of previously assessed taxes and fees when due and the additional prescribed tax The project took into account the unification of the additional tax in order to avoid confusion and to prevent duplication of application in the rest of the provisions of the law. It was also sufficient to deposit a guarantee because of its power that exceeds insurance in guaranteeing the rights of the public treasury, as it is more general and comprehensive than insurance. On the other hand, it was stipulated that the temporary grace period be reduced to One year may be extended for another period not exceeding one year, instead of two years to be extended to a similar period in order to ensure the seriousness of those subject to the provisions of this system and to the provisions of customs control, especially since the two-year period is a sufficient period for manufacturing.