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Industry Committee to complete discussion over automotive draft law mid-March Car importers submitted memorandum of objection regarding certain aspects of the draft law
The Egyptian parliament's Industry Committee plans to complete the discussion of the automotive industry draft law in mid-March in preparation for presenting it to the general commission to set a date for approval. Mohamed Zeny, deputy of the Industry Committee, said that they held meetings with all parties of the auto industry and importers in Egypt, to produce a balanced draft law, support the Egyptian economy and increase exports in the coming period. Some car importers said that the importing companies submitted a number of requests to amend the automotive industry draft law during the recent hearing sessions in the parliament. The car importers told Daily News Egypt that the import companies have objected some items in the draft law. They objected granting investment incentives for achieving certain rates of production, while they demanded to increase the grace period to be more than eight years, so as to increase the local component ratio to about 65%. The companies also demanded the amendment of the articles related to the incentives programme for importing companies. This article stipulates that importing companies, which are willing to benefit from the incentives programme, should manufacture and export automotive components, equivalent to 25% of the company's imports value. The companies called for the parliament to reduce this ratio to 5-10%. On the other hand, Zeny said the parliamentary committee did not receive any objections from the automotive companies during the recent period. However, the committee has received memoranda from some automotive manufacturers who met earlier with members of parliament to present their suggestions with regards to the automotive industry draft law. Volkswagen has delivered its observations on the draft law, underlining the need to waive categorisation according to engine capacities and replace it with categories according to size and engine power in kilowatts and horsepower. The company said in its memo submitted to the parliament that the incentive proportion provided in article VI of the bill is very large, which will drive importers out of the market. The parliament's Industry Committee had previously met outside the parliament with representatives from companies like Volkswagen, Seat, Kia Motors, Brilliance, and Auto Jameel—an automotive distributor for Ford and Daihatsu. The meeting was also attended by representatives from the auto-parts supply industries.
