CAIRO - Since before the revolution, the drivers of the white taxis have staged more than 20 demonstrations. Things recently took a turn for the worse, when one of them ran over two protesters outside the Ministry of Finance; one of them died of his injuries. Although the Military Police have broken up the demonstrations, a long-term solution hasn't been found to a problem that dates back to the era of former Minister of Finance Youssef Boutros Ghali. The story started when Ghali approved of a plan allowing publicity companies to advertise on the white taxis, in return for which these companies would help the drivers pay the installments on their vehicles. But the white taxi drivers suffered three shocks: firstly, the installments were increased; secondly, the publicity companies stopped paying for the advertising; and thirdly, the drivers now have to pay the market price for spare parts, although it was originally agreed that they would pay far less. One of the drivers, Mohamed el-Sayyed, told Al-Akhbar semi-official newspaper that the drivers have asked the current Minister of Finance, Samir Radwan, to help them. “The installments have risen to LE550 per month and we could go to jail if we can't pay. The Ministry of Finance has reached an agreement with a new publicity company to pay LE225 to each driver per month, but the drivers have turned it down,” he said. Meanwhile, some of the banks participating in this above project made things worse when, last September, they started refusing to pay the money from the advertising companies into the drivers' accounts. El-Sayyed said that the Alexandria Bank is the only bank paying the money, adding that Bank Misr and Al-Ahly Bank refuse to do so, arguing that the money should come from the fund for financing the taxis, affiliated to the Ministry of Finance. Ali Hussein, another driver, has appealed to the Municipal Council and Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, telling them they must solve their problem soon before they end up in jail for defaulting on the repayments. Hussein now regrets sinking all his money into a white taxi, as now he can't afford to feed his family. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance is thinking of scrapping the white taxi project, because of all the flak from the drivers. It has already made a concession to the drivers, postponing the payment to the banks of two installments, in the light of the financial crisis since the recent revolution, but it says that the drivers keep on complaining.
