The Egyptian government intends to reduce the “quota” for car imports by about 20%, starting this month, so that the maximum will be 8,000 cars per month instead of 10,000 cars with the previous quota that it set last June, according to a government official who spoke to Al-Sharq on condition of anonymity, referring to the measure. What's new is the government's attempts to rationalize the use of the dollar and not to over-import.
The official’s statements come a few days after the statements of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi: “Is it reasonable that we are unable to manufacture cars in Egypt that are sufficient for our local needs?” explaining that if we want to overcome the dollar challenge, a large percentage of the products must be manufactured locally, and this is not easy. .
Completely implementing the procedure for setting a ceiling on monthly imports means that the total number of cars that will be imported will not exceed 100,000 vehicles annually, and this number is slightly more than what was imported in the entire year of 2023, which amounted to 90,000 cars. But it is much lower than the numbers for 2021 and 2022, before the crisis of stopping the release of goods at the ports due to the scarcity of the dollar, which amounted to 184 thousand cars and 290 thousand cars respectively, according to the report of the Automotive Market Information Council (AMIC).
“Customs have not been officially informed of this,” said Al-Shahat Ghatouri, head of the Egyptian Customs Authority, in response to messages from the East seeking comment on the new procedures.
Regarding the division of the “quota” shares, it is planned to allocate a large share to merchants, amounting to 65% for commercial imports, 5% for diplomats, 5% for the needs of government bodies, 20% for personal imports for citizens, and 5% for people of determination “after the arrival of the government’s new requirements for importing cars.” People of Determination,” according to the official.
Car sales in Egypt increased by about 16% during the first 8 months of this year compared to the same period last year to 59.26 thousand cars, according to the monthly report of the Automotive Market Information Council (AMIC).
In mid-May 2023, car companies discovered that the registration provision for passenger cars on the Advance Consignment Registration (ACI) system was broken, and then in mid-August the temporary release was allowed for only some dealers.
One of the people who spoke with Al-Sharq said that the government will allow companies to import cars from abroad on the condition that they generate 60% of the hard currency of the value of what is imported.
Alaa Al-Sabaa, a member of the General Automotive Division of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and head of the Group of Seven Automotive, told Al-Sharq that the government has already begun releasing shipments of cars coming from abroad, but in a very limited manner, which does not solve the current crisis, pointing out that the car market in Egypt is now going through… A period of severe recession, which caused huge losses to merchants and importers.
Al-Sabaa added in his interview with Al-Sharq that the government’s permission for the limited release of cars coming from abroad is a “disruptive” permission that does not benefit anything and does not solve the existing crisis. His goal is for the government to say that it has resumed the release of cars, demanding the necessity of releasing all cars imported from abroad. abroad normally as it was before, until the car market in Egypt stabilizes and prices decline.
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