FinMin, Trade Ministry deny plans to impose new 10-20% tax on car sales: Trade Ministry advisor Hossam Abdel Aziz denied our report from Wednesday morning that the Finance and Trade ministries considering a plan that could impose a 10-20% “development fee” on all car sales. Trade Minister Amr Nassar also denied he or Finance Minister Mohamed Maait had spoken to the press about the plan, according to Al Mal. Two senior government officials had told us that the plan, still on the drawing board, would offset the development fee for locally assembled or manufactured vehicles through discounts or waivers of other fees. The sources told us that the government was eyeing finalizing the plan by 1 January, 2019 — which is when Egypt will bring import duties on European cars to zero as planned under a trade agreement.