By Ayat Al-Batawi
The Ministry of Finance has renewed 42,300 taxis over three stages of funding, with ministry sources saying that 1020 taxis were replaced and renewed during the 2013/2014 fiscal year.
A finance ministry official added the ministry is able to complete the renewal process for the taxis, with the first stage of the project starting six years ago. The third and final stage remains ongoing.
The National Bank of Egypt, Alex Bank, Banque Misr, and Nasser Social Bank helped fund the taxi project.
The Finance Ministry hopes to replace and renew 1,600 taxis by the end of FY 2014/2015 through EGP 24m in funding.
The sources said that the finance ministry scrapping such a large number of vehicles over the first three phases of the project formed a significant challenge due to various ministry changes. Challenges also occurred due to the difficult conditions after the 25 January Revolution.
This comes alongside banks’ reluctance to provide financing due to strict conditions set for drivers in the project’s third phase requiring a guarantor for each driver to avoid payment difficulties.
‘White taxi’ drivers have requested time for the recommendations of the Ministry of Justice committee, formed in December by the cabinet, be implemented stipulating a re-evaluation of prices for older ‘black taxis’.
The Finance Ministry refused to meet these requests after incurring expenses of EGP 1.5bn paid from the State Treasury for the benefit of drivers.
