As expected, the talking heads were almost universally preoccupied with the surprise increase in the value-added tax on cigarettes, which is by a wide margin the lead story in the domestic press this morning.

Finance Minister Amr El Garhy made the rounds to calm a nation distraught over the prospect of downgrading to Cleopatras. The minister told Hona Al Asema’s Lamees Al Hadidi that President Abdel Fattah El Sisi is expected to sign off on the new taxes this week, at which time they will be implemented. He warned the public that they should expect further increases in the price of cigarettes as he expects tobacco companies to hike prices in a bid to protect their P&Ls (watch, runtime: 8:58).

El Garhy took to Al Hayah Al Youm to talk up the health and financial benefits of the move, saying the tax would see more people quit smoking. He stressed that cigarette prices in Egypt are among the lowest in the world.

Blame your lazy MPs for the shock of the news: The finance minister told host Tamer Amin that the increases had been factored in to the FY2017-18 budget and should have been passed by the House earlier this year. He quite perfectly dismissed concerns raised by Amin on the impact the move would have on lower-income citizens (watch, runtime: 7:15).

Eastern Company Chairman Mohamed Othman Haroun phoned to Yahduth fi Masr to say that they still haven’t received official notification of the tax on cigarette packs. He said his company’s death sticks will rise at most about EGP 3-4 per pack.

Back in the real world, Lamees Al Hadidi looked at Saad Al Hariri’s visit to Cairo and the Lebanon crisis. Her guest, Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies head Emad Gad, said that there might be an Egyptian-French initiative in play to calm the crisis (watch, runtime: 7:28).

Kol Youm’s Amr Adib was rather sensibly sticking to an actual crisis: Egypt’s water shortage. He spoke with the head of Potable Water & Sanitary Drainage Regulatory Authority Mohamed Hassan who implied that the government’s move to increase water prices will help keep consumption down, saying that these were mainly targeting those using up to 200 liters per day (watch, runtime: 1:25). Head of the water utilities department at the Irrigation Ministry Khaled Abdel Latif told Adib that the average daily per capita consumption in Egypt is 350 liters, whereas the international average is 100 liters (watch, runtime: 1:47).