Sedky: A deadline to study the financial position of each entity owed dues through the relevant committees of the House
Files to be presented to the Prime Minister for a decision, and they may reach the President
By Akram Medhat
MP Amr Sedky, head of the Tourism and Aviation Committee of the House of Representatives, stated that a field visit including a tour of Nuweiba and Taba is scheduled for this week to monitor investors' problems and stalled projects on the ground, as well as the reasons for weak tourist traffic to these areas, which were raised at a meeting of the committee in parliament with investors' associations and officials of the relevant ministries.
Sedky pointed out that the visit coincides with the annual anniversary of raising the Egyptian flag over Taba, which dates back to March 19, 1989.
He told Travel Yalla News that the problems of tourism investment in Nuweiba and Taba were discussed in parliament last week in the presence of representatives of the relevant ministries, most notably tourism, aviation, finance, transport, water resources and irrigation, and local development, as well as the Governor of South Sinai.
He added that the aim of the meeting and the field visit is to identify the obstacles to the area's tourism growth and the failure to market it in a manner befitting its natural potential, noting that the root of the escalating crises is that government bodies deal with the tourism sector through a policy of isolated islands. Therefore, the relevant bodies were brought together to identify the problem and find solutions with the state's interest in mind, stressing that no party is being accused of negligence.
Legal obstacles and positive moves
Sedky noted that officials understood all these obstacles but stressed their commitment to implementing the laws, "and we cannot blame them." Therefore, legislative amendments must be made to allow employees to work in an environment that does not expose them to legal accountability when the situation requires supporting investors in the interest of the national economy.
Sedky revealed that it was agreed that the relevant ministries would conduct a comprehensive study of tax revenue and all public services from which the tourism sector benefits, before and after the revolution, and they were given a one-week deadline to obtain this information, in order to study the economic impact based on an analysis of the financial position through the specialized committees of the House of Representatives, such as the Economic Committee and the Plan and Budget Committee, with the help of experts and specialists. The full picture will then be presented to the Prime Minister for a decision, and the matter may need to be presented to the President, in order to reach a way of settling the situation to achieve the targeted revenues.
Torrents: An ongoing crisis
The head of parliament's Tourism and Aviation Committee reviewed some of these problems, most notably the delay by the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation in building dams and torrent channels, noting that the ministry was forced to close Wadi Watir, one of the arteries feeding Bedouin trip and safari tourism.
Some of the negative effects of torrents on the Nuweiba road
Taba Airport: Present yet absent
Regarding aviation, Sedky explained that the lack of incentives for EgyptAir to operate domestic flights to Taba Airport was discussed with the head of the Egyptian Airports Company. This has led to the airport disappearing from flight schedules, so international airlines do not find it to operate flights to, and it relies only on charter flights. He stressed that an EgyptAir flight to Taba Airport would be a strong draw for other airlines.
He also reviewed the problem of torrents hindering access to and from Taba Airport, which requires a meeting of the relevant authorities to solve it.
Departure fees between Taba and Nuweiba!
Sedky expressed astonishment at the problem raised with the Ministry of Transport of a departure fee of EGP 400 per person being collected to pass from Taba to Nuweiba; the ministry affirmed it has nothing to do with the matter. Everyone was also surprised to find that the governorate knows nothing about the issue, and all this hinders tourism. He asked: "Who is this stranger collecting this money?"
Give and take
On the dues owed by hotels to electricity and water companies, Sedky stressed that these services are the lifeblood of hotel establishments, and therefore there should be no intransigence in collecting them in a way that exhausts customers and halts projects, especially amid the crises and tourism stagnation in these cities. He proposed making use of these dues by organizing summer holiday trips for employees of these companies to those hotels in exchange for waiving part of the financial dues, which would ease the burden on establishment owners and keep the hotel operating, thus giving it a lifeline, explaining that this proposal does not mean encouraging investors not to pay the state's dues.
Separately, Sedky linked the decline in customs revenue at Nuweiba Port to poor service and weak tourism, which negatively affects state revenue, adding that the Ministry of Finance's imposition of value-added tax and property tax has left owners of tourism projects unable to open their hotels.
