This announcement came during a press conference following Egypt’s decision to impose taxes on imported mobile phones as of January 2025.

“Each citizen is entitled to bring one personal phone every three months without incurring any taxes, as long as the phone is not used for illegal activities, such as being resold for commercial purposes,” Shamroukh stated.

This was revealed despite earlier statements from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and the Ministry of Finance, which indicated that the newly introduced taxes would apply to all imported mobile phones starting January 2025.

Sherif Elkilany, vice minister of finance for tax policies, clarified on 25 December that individuals will not be taxed on a single personal phone. However, customs duties will apply if someone brings in more than one phone.

Elkilany stressed that these taxes do not target personal phones brought by citizens returning from abroad.

He further explained that the taxes are not new, as the fees currently being collected have been in effect for decades. They were specifically collected to address the issue of smuggled phones entering the country without paying the necessary customs duties.

On 25 December, Elkilany confirmed that these taxes, estimated at 38.8 percent, will apply to phones beyond the one tax-exempt personal phone.

In line with these developments, on 31 December, the Egyptian Customs Authority (ECA) introduced a new mobile application called Telephony (My Phone).

The app is designed to facilitate the registration of mobile phones imported from abroad.

In a clarification issued on Wednesday, the ECA announced that foreign visitors arriving in the country will not be required to pay taxes on personal phones that are activated with non-Egyptian SIM cards.