MPs Support The Mobile Factories Against Industry Minister

Members of the Finance and Budget Committee of the National People’s Assembly refused, on Monday, to comply with an article that was called by the Industry Minister, Djamila Timezirt, regarding the cessation of the mobile phone installation activity permanently, and called on MPs to raise fees on this category – the mobile installation plants – and restrict the privileges and reduce them instead of stopping the activity permanently in order to avoid destroying the activity of entrepreneurs, according to them, because they are employing thousands of workers, and stopping the activity of these plants would raise unemployment.

A member of the Finance and Budget Committee of the National People’s Assembly, Ammar Moussa, told Echorouk that it was decided during the meeting of the committee, on Monday, that lasted from 4 pm to 1:30 am (7 and a half hours) to amend Article 112 concerning mobile phone manufacturers, which included the exclusion of phones from applying the SKD and CKD installation systems that are are subject to a unified system with raising the customs’ tariff from 5% to 30%, and it was decided to maintain the activity with a fee increase.

The supplementary report of the draft Finance Act for 2020 also included the amendment of Article 106 on the import of cars less than 3 years, through the inclusion of diesel cars less than 3 years in the list of used vehicles that are allowed to be imported from abroad and the rejection of all other amendments that were proposed and which are related to the same article.

The amendments also included the abolition of Article 66 on the payment of a fee of DZD 6,000 for cars of foreigners and immigrants who are coming to Algeria, and the amendment of Article 26, which sets the percentage of the tax on wealth to be relative or 0.1%, and the amendment of Article 102 on the fee on tobacco products to rise to DZD 22 dinars instead of DZD 17, and the amendment of Article 25 of the draft text that exempts residential shops from overpayment.

Regarding Article 104 on external financing or external borrowing, it was allowed, but with the addition of the control mechanism of the National People’s Assembly and the same with regard to the removal of the investment rule 51-49 and retained only in respect of strategic sectors that would affect national sovereignty, where a control mechanism was added at the National People’s Assembly for this article.

The meeting also decided to accept the amendment of Article 48 of the Finance Law for the year 2015 on granting concession in the field of industrial property, where it was giving priority to the governors, but a new article was added to abolish the powers of the prefects, and the return of the work of the Committee “CALPIREF”, and accepted the amendment of article 23 of the 2018 Finance Law on the file that was deposited after the sale, where the government-held 50% of the amount until the completion of the sale, after it was previously set at 20%, and according to the amendments that were approved by the Finance and Budget Committee of the National People’s Council, on Monday, to return to the system of retention and keep only one fifth of the amount.

According to the spokesman, the MPs were unable to amend Article 61, which includes a constituent fee on energy efficiency, and a 5% fee was imposed on materials classified as “A”, “A Plus” and “A Plus Plus”, both the local and the imported products, which will make the national product out of competition and threaten the domestic industry such as lamps and some high-efficiency energy home appliance products.