It was a mixed bag of nuts on the airwaves last night, as the talking heads mostly turned their attention to Health Minister Hala Zayed’s press conference on Egypt’s planned manufacturing of the Sinovac vaccine (which we recap in full in the news well, above).

How do you define a monopoly? Eastern Company being the only manufacturer of tobacco products in Egypt doesn’t make it a monopoly, Eastern’s CEO Hany Aman told Kelma Akhira’s Lamees El Hadidi. Aman recapped the broad strokes of the tender that would grant one license to establish Egypt’s second major tobacco company and confirmed that Eastern is looking to begin producing e-cigarettes (watch, runtime: 5:55)

Your regular reminder to file your taxes: The Tax Authority has no plans to extend the 31 March deadline for income tax filing, considering the authority has already pushed the deadline twice, head of the authority’s central administration El Sayed Sakr told Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa. Filings are now electronic, Sakr reminded Moussa (watch, runtime: 4:48).

Also on the airwaves last night:

• Construction on phase 1 of the high-speed electric rail line linking Ain Sokhna and New Alamein is scheduled to wrap in 2023, Transport Minister Kamel El Wazir said. (Ahmed Moussa on Ala Mas’ouleety | watch, runtime 71:42)
• Egypt is still committed to the declaration of principles on GERD, Irrigation Ministry spokesperson Mohamed Ghanem said. (Khairy Ramadan and Karima Awad on Hadith Al Kahera | watch, runtime: 4:53)