Minister of Finance Ahmed Galal has announced an increase in the selling prices of domestic and imported cigarettes, prices which will be used to determine the level of sales tax that cigarette vendors will pay.
According to the finance minister, a pack of Parliament cigarettes will cost EGP 19. The brand is the first on the pricing list and is produced by International Tobacco Company Philip Morris.
A pack of imported Marlboro and Merit, also produced by Philip Morris, along with British American Tobacco's (BAT) Dunhill, Kent and Kent Nanotek will cost EGP 17 each.
The L&M and Rothmans packs, also imported brands of cigarettes, will cost EGP 12, while the Next pack will cost EGP 11.5.
Original and light Viceroy Cigarettes will cost EGP 9. Meanwhile, locally produced Super Star and Cleopatra cartons are said to cost EGP 7.
The prices of locally produced cigarettes listed range between EGP 6 and EGP 2.
According to the ministerial statement, vendors who sell cigarettes at a higher price than that which is listed will be taxed based on the selling price, otherwise, it would be considered tax evasion.
In April 2013, merchants said prices for cigarettes produced outside Egypt rose by EGP 1 to EGP 2, reaching an average of EGP 14. However, a government official denied such allegations: "If cigarette prices have risen, then it is simply a move by greedy traders, since the price of the US dollar has jumped recently."
In 2012, a study conducted by BAT revealed that Egypt loses EGP 4bn annually due to the trade of illicit cigarettes, which is rapidly increasing in the lower-cost brands. The report indicated that the increases in cigarette prices led to the smuggling of more than 100 low-cost brands in 2011.
In turn, higher levels of smuggling resulted in a 3% loss in the country's budget deficit during 2012.