No Official Decision to delay Fuel Smart Cards- Egypt’s Finance

Egyptian Finance Ministry has not received any official decision to postpone a smart card system for subsidised fuel, Amr Badawy -Minister’s First deputy for Institutional Development- said Saturday.

Badawy told Amwal al Ghad that the ministry has not received any problems or obstacles leading to study any delay for the system, adding that he does not know anything about the presidential statements.

On other side, officials in E-Finance Company stated that they do not know anything about the postponing desicion.

On Saturday, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi asked his government to consider postponing a smart card system for subsidised fuel which was due to come into effect in two days, a state media said.

“The president directed the government to urgently study postponing the application of this system until all the sectors that don’t have these cards are covered,” the state news agency, MENA, quoted the presidency spokesman Alaa Youssef as saying.

The report had no further details.

Egypt was planning to roll out the new system from June 15, as part of plans to reduce costly energy subsidies over time.

Meanwhile, E-Finance was established in 2005 as the market leader in the field of electronic payment. Operating in Egypt, e-finance provides state of the art electronic payment and its shares own and divided by National Investment Bank 70%, National Bank of Egypt 10%, Banque Misr10% and the Egyptian Banks Company (EBC) with 10%.