Customs Authority contacts commercial representation offices to develop a guideline for car prices

Ahmed Farahat
5 Min Read

The automotive sector has been facing challenges since the beginning of 2015 when the Egyptian Customs Authority impounded hundreds of cars in customs ports, following a change of indicative prices for imported products.

The automotive sector is the largest importer of products, which tempted the authority to review the prices of imported cars, evaluate cars depending on the model and features, and reconsider indicative price according to global prices.

With the introduction of new prices, complaints of some companies about the Customs Authority emerged for what they called “unrealistic prices”. Companies said the prices claimed by the authority are markedly different than the price dealers pay to companies to import cars. A clash between many companies and the Customs Authority began, especially companies that imported cars in early 2015.

Daily News Egypt is publishing the correspondence sent by the Customs Authority to six commercial representation offices abroad seeking price information of cars in Japan, Italy, Korea, France, India and America for the 2016 models.

The authority also addressed the plenipotentiary Minister and Head of Commercial Representation Offices Ali El-Leithy with its requests to send them to the Egyptian embassy in India, which in turn should contact cars companies there and respond with the exporting prices for the 2016 Maruti and Tata, among others, to Egypt.

It also requested a statement with chassis numbers for 2016, as well as technical catalogues via fax, until originals arrive in Egypt via the diplomatic mission.

Customs have also addressed the plenipotentiary minister in France to contact French car manufacturers and provide the prices to export to Egypt for the 2016 models of Peugeot, Citroen, and Renault as well as chassis numbers that mark the beginning of 2016 and the technical catalogues of these models.

The correspondences were also sent to the Egyptian commercial representation office in Korea to request the export prices to Egypt for the new models of Hyundai, Kia, and Samsung cars in addition to the chassis numbers and technical catalogues for these cars.

Customs also addressed the Egyptian embassy in Italy to provide export prices to Egypt for Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Lancia, Autobianchi, and Lamborghini among other Italian models as well as chassis number and technical catalogs for these cars.

Meanwhile, the conflict between the Customs Authority and Mitsubishi continued. The Authority has impounded imported Mitsubishi cars for revising indicative price. It also addressed the Plenipotentiary Minister at the Egyptian mission in Japan to seek Mitsubishi’s exporting prices to Egypt and the Gulf, specifying payment terms, advances, and operation payment.

Customs noted that it is offered the final price of the total remaining payments on shipping and prior to delivery, which complements 100% of the due payments as value for goods before any discounts obtained by importers for different payment terms.

The Customs Authority has earlier released Mitsubishi cars after addressing the commercial representation office in Japan.

Chief Executive of Diamond Motors, Mitsubishi dealer in Egypt Mostafa Hussein said earlier that he stands by the public interest of the state. He described the customs amendments as suitable to limit offering forged bills to the authority. He said his company imports directly from Japan, which makes all his paperwork legal.

Customs also addressed the Egyptian commercial mission in Japan to contact Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Daihatsu, Isuzu, Suzuki, and Subaru manufacturers to find the exporting prices of the 2016 models to Egypt in addition to chassis numbers and technical catalogs urgently via fax until the diplomatic mission can deliver the original copies.

Customs also sent a letter to the Plenipotentiary Minister of the Egyptian Embassy in the US to seek export prices to Egypt for passenger cars of 2016 models including vans and trucks and models of Senova in addition to chassis numbers for 2016 and technical catalogs.

 

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