Egypt government to require use of fuel subsidy cards
The Egyptian government, in an effort to eventually reduce fuel subsidies, plans to start requiring the use of fuel subsidy cards to keep track of the fuel consumed by each vehicle.
CAIRO — Egypt plans to start requiring the use of fuel subsidy cards in mid-June in a preliminary step toward restructuring energy subsidies, which are costing the government about 100 billion Egyptian pounds ($13 billion) this fiscal year.
Owners of vehicles of all types will not be allowed to fill up on fuel without the smart cards.
The Egyptian government said April 28 that starting in mid-June, fuel cards will have to be used for any type of vehicles, be they private cars, taxis, buses, public transportation vehicles, or tourism or school buses. The e-finance company, tasked with building a system for recording the use of cards, started distributing cards to citizens in April 2014. By mid-June, citizens will not be allowed to fill up their cars without these cards.
Khaled Abdul Ghani, the project director for the fuel subsidy cards at e-Finance, told Al-Monitor that “citizens who did not obtain a fuel card through their car-license administration will have to use the cards available in gas stations.”
