Egyptians spend 4.8 billion pounds on smoking

The Egyptian Planning Ministry released a statement yesterday saying Egyptians have spent 4.8 billion pounds on smoking local and imported cigarettes and narghile (hubble-bubble), compared to 4.5 billion pounds last year -- an increase of 6.6%.

The payments for cigarettes amounted to nearly 4.5 billion pounds, 250 million of which went for imported and foreign cigarettes while the payments of the narghile amounted to 300 million pounds.

The general treasury of Egypt obtained 3.8 billion pounds in taxes and customs from cigarettes and narghile, a statement released by the Egyptian Ministry of Planning said yesterday.