Minister of Transport Hisham Arafat and Chairperson of the Suez Canal Authority and the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) Mohab Mamish announced the granting of proportional discounts for the transit fees of ships reaching 50%. Arafat said that an integrated plan has been put in place to develop the Egyptian ports and improve the maritime transport sector, thus contributing to increasing the national income. He added that there is coordination with the SCZone and the Ports Authority to develop the logistics zones at ports to stimulate investments. He reviewed the mechanism of adopting a comprehensive invoice scheme, whereby the fees of ships for crossing the Suez Canal are collected through a single bill that includes all the fees paid for all state agencies. These include the Ministry of Transportation, the SCZone, the Suez Canal Authority, and the ministries of finance, interior, and health. Arafat pointed out that this item gets its fees in Egyptian pounds, and another item includes a second dollar part to an account of the Suez Canal Authority, along with a third item for port fees belonging to the Ministry of Transportation. Meanwhile, Mamish said that the decisions will attract international shipping lines to the ports of the region, especially East Port Said in the north and Ain Sokhna in the south, and then increase the turnover of ships in the ports of the region, which will increase the operating revenues. He added that they will also contribute to increasing the rate of handling containers and push investors to establish industrial activities in the logistics areas at ports. He noted that the comprehensive invoice system consolidates the basis of accounting and prevents the difference in estimating loads and fees of ships at different agencies or duplicate fees. It also ensures the speed of settlement of any differences arising from the accounting for the provision of navigation services. This scheme will be applied in the first phase on the maritime ports of the SCZone.
