The House Industry Committee is set to complete its review of the automotive directive and send the bill back to a plenary session of the House of Representatives by mid-March, Al Borsa reports. The committee held discussions with auto industry players this week, with importers continuing to object to the structure of the minimum export quotas necessary to benefit from tax incentives. Under the bill, a car company’s exports must at least equal 25% of the value of their imports to benefit from the incentives. Importers are looking to see that quota reduced to 5-10%. (Under the proposed legislation, car importers — as distinct from assemblers — would have the right to import a quota of fully assembled vehicles under the same preferential tax structure that domestic manufacturers would enjoy only if their exports of automotive components meet a minimum threshold.) The bill, which would provide manufacturing and export incentives along the value chain to promote the development of a domestic auto industry, but has been delayed by a lobbying war pitting auto assemblers and auto importers against each other. We’ll have more on the automotive directive next week.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Amr El Garhy and CBE Governor Tarek Amer will appear before the House Economics Committee on Monday and Tuesday of next week to discuss clauses in the new Investment Act about investment incentives, private free trade zones, and profit repatriation for foreign companies, Al Borsa reports. The committee hopes to understand more about the guidelines regulating the special incentives given to foreign investors and lobby for the return of FZs. The bill is expected to come to a vote by the end of March.

Several members of the Economics Committee are boycotting discussion of the Investment Act in continued protest of the selection of Support Egypt coalition head Amr Ghallab as the new chair of the committee, Al Mal reports. Ghallab replaced Ali El Moselhy, who was tapped to become supply minister. The MPs are claiming that pro-government Support Egypt stacked the deck against them in the committee election. House speaker Ali Abdel Aal has intervened to no avail.