Egypt treasury gained $385 mln under special car-import deal for expats

In a statement on Saturday, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait explained that 600 cars have been released thus far to Egyptians living abroad who signed up to take advantage of the initiative.

The government has been receiving around 3,000 requests to import cars under the terms of the initiative, Maait said.

The deadline for receiving requests to import cars under the initiative is 14 May, Maait stressed.

The cars-for-CDs initiative was launched in October of 2022 in the form of a one-year-duration legislation passed by the House of Representatives with the aim of attracting much needed hard currency.

The government said it hopes the initiative would bring in as much as $2.5 billion in revenue to the treasury.

The legislation entitles Egyptians over the age of 16 who have valid residence permits and a bank account in a foreign country to import one private passenger car for their personal use within five years of enrolling in the initiative.

Those who enrol in the initiative are required to invest the value of saved customs duties and taxes in foreign currency in an interest-free five-year certificate of deposit (CD).

They can recover the deposit in Egyptian pounds at the end of the period according to the exchange rate at that time.

Under the legislation, Egyptians who live in countries that do not have trade agreements with Egypt can still enrol in the initiative and receive a 70 percent discount on customs duties.