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Egypt president raises cigarette, alcohol prices

FILE - In this Monday, May 26, 2014 file photo, an Egyptian man smokes a cigarette by election campaign posters with Arabic that reads, "long live Egypt, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi," during the first day of a presidential election in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, decreed new sales tax on cigarettes by up to 50 percent and on beer by 200 percent, the latest decision in a series of steep price hikes that aim to ease the country’s staggering budget deficit. Estimates put the number of smokers in Egypt between 17 to 21 percent of the adult population. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty, File)
FILE - In this Monday, May 26, 2014 file photo, an Egyptian man smokes a cigarette by election campaign posters with Arabic that reads, "long live Egypt, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi," during the first day of a presidential election in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, decreed new sales tax on cigarettes by up to 50 percent and on beer by 200 percent, the latest decision in a series of steep price hikes that aim to ease the country’s staggering budget deficit. Estimates put the number of smokers in Egypt between 17 to 21 percent of the adult population. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty, File) FILE - In this Monday, May 26, 2014 file photo, an Egyptian man smokes a cigarette by election campaign posters with Arabic that reads, "long live Egypt, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi," during the first day of a presidential election in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, decreed new sales tax on cigarettes by up to 50 percent and on beer by 200 percent, the latest decision in a series of steep price hikes that aim to ease the country’s staggering budget deficit. Estimates put the number of smokers in Egypt between 17 to 21 percent of the adult population. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty, File)

By Associated Press 1 min read

CAIRO (AP) – Egypt’s president has issued a decree raising the sales tax on cigarettes, beer and wine.

The decision released Sunday is the latest in a series of decrees that aim to ease Egypt’s staggering budget deficit, which has hovered at around 12 percent during three years of turmoil.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, former military chief elected last month, vowed to take tough decisions to address Egypt’s battered economy. El-Sissi also partially lifted subsidies on fuel, a politically sensitive issue that Egypt’s previous leaders had avoided.

In Egypt, where nearly 50 percent of the population live in poverty, state subsidies on energy and basic food stuffs eat up a quarter of the budget.

The new tax increases a flat rate on local and imported cigarettes and doubles an already existing tax on beer.