Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait ordered amending the executive regulations of the Customs Law to strengthen governance, and simplify and reduce customs clearance time, in a manner that makes Egypt a regional centre for transit trade and facilitates the movement of internal and external trade.
The amendments included allowing the submission of the customs declaration electronically for all incoming goods as soon as they are unloaded, unless they are stored in customs-licensed yards or warehouses to accelerate the pace of customs clearance and encourage transit trade by accepting insurance policies as customs guarantee instead of requesting cash or bank guarantees.
Al-Shahat Ghaturi, Head of the Customs Authority, confirmed that the goods of international multimodal transport are subject to the provisions and rules of the “Transit” system stipulated in the law, so that they are not subject to prevention, evaluation, and inspection at entry and exit points, except in the cases that the Authority deems necessary, such as cases of suspicion, or breach of security, public order, or public health.
He pointed out that new activities related to repairing and cleaning containers have been added to reuse them again, pointing out that new measures have been taken to exempt petroleum companies from fines and stimulate exports, as these companies were allowed to adjust the quantities exported according to the “actually shipped” documents within 72 hours, after it was found that there are differences in the quantities as a result of the nature of the petroleum materials, as they are pumped through pipes from the warehouses to the means of transport, where quantities remain in these pipes, representing the difference between what was in the warehouse and what was shipped.
He explained that customs extractors were allowed to re-register in the event that the reasons for canceling licenses ceased to exist, or if one year had passed since the cancellation decision.
