Egypt Aims to Scrap 250K Old Cars

Egypt’s Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait declared Saturday that the government plans to replace 250,000 vehicles manufactured 20 years or more ago in seven governorates, as part of the first phase of a presidential initiative to convert Egyptian vehicles to run on clean energy.

The Minister said that President Abdel Fattah El Sisi directed the government to prepare the initiative to help citizens replace their old vehicles with a modern one running on dual fuel (gasoline and natural gas).

According to an official statement from the Ministry of Finance, Maait has announced that the Public Treasury will bear the burden of financing the LE7.1 billion green incentive for the first phase of this presidential initiative.

Maait explained that the Cabinet agreed to grant the owner of each private car from among the beneficiaries of this initiative 10 percent of the price of the new car at a maximum of LE22,000.

Moreover, taxis will receive 20 percent at a maximum of LE45,000 and microbuses will receive 25 percent at a maximum of LE65,000, with a three percent reducing rate of interest and a repayment period of up to 10 years.

According to domestic reports, 250,000 vehicles cars were targeted during the three-year presidential initiative to replace vehicles older than 20 years.  90,000 cares were targeted during the second, and 90,000 during the third.

"The Presidential initiative will help relieve burdens on citizens by providing them with unprecedented financial incentives, credit facilities, and the opportunity to own new cars instead of aging vehicles which are costly to operate and maintain," Maait explained.

"This initiative will contribute to revitalizing the auto industry as well," he added, "particularly industries that feed it as it requires cars to be assembled in Egypt with a local component ratio of no less than 45 %."