Talk shows last night were fixated on the government’s decision to scrap customs exemptions for mobile phones brought in by travelers from abroad.

The House is pushing back: House Budget Committee Deputy Chair Abdel Moneim Emam slammed the decision during a call with Lamees El Hadidi on Al Sora (watch, runtime: 16:49). Emam argued that Egyptians living abroad should be granted an exemption for at least one handset per year as a perk for their contribution to the economy. He highlighted a massive price discrepancy between locally-assembled handsets and those sold in Gulf markets.

The gov’t defense — it’s to support local industry: Deputy Finance Minister for Taxes Sherif Al Kilani defended the move to El Hadidi, urging a shift in focus toward supporting domestic manufacturing. Al Kilani rejected the price-gap claims, asserting that domestic units are significantly cheaper than their imported counterparts.

The industry stats: Around 92% of the mobile brands purchased by Egyptians are now manufactured locally, NTRA spokesperson Mohamed Ibrahim told Yahduth Fi Misr’s Sherif Amer (watch, runtime: 11:02). The spokesperson noted that 50% of all handsets sold in Egypt last year were made in Egypt.

** Check out our full coverage of the decision in the news well, above.

(** Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to our background as well as external sources.)

Tags: