Also from the reform files: Gov’t takes comatose fuel smart cards off life support: The Madbouly government has officially pulled the plug on the defunct ration card system for fuel, according to an announcement by the Oil Minister Tarek El Molla on Wednesday, according to Al Mal. The policy had been riddled with “holes” the government could not plug, he reportedly said. The smart card system would create another parallel market for fuel, which would be counterproductive, he added. The policy was also economically unfeasible, costing the state some EGP 2 bn, he said. Oil Ministry spokesperson Hamdy Abdel Aziz highlighted another glaring problem with the system: We have no tally of all the vehicles out there in Egypt. The system was supposed to include vehicles such as tuk-tuks and fishing boats, and without a proper tally of these vehicles the system would not be able to be implement, he said on Thursday, according to AMAY.

Background: The fuel smart cards system was meant to help reduce energy spending by limiting access to subsidized fuel and curbing the sale of this fuel on the black market. The issuance of smart cards began in May 2015, with an eye to fully implementing it by June of that year. President El-Sisi then postponed the system suddenly a day before its scheduled implementation “until all the sectors that don’t have these cards are covered.” New smart cards, however, continued to be issued for a period after.

What’s really going on: The system has been scrapped because subsidies are going out the window.

Fuel subsidies to be completely eliminated by next year, warns El Molla: “The [recent] increase [in petrol prices at the pumps] comes as a corrective measure for the pricing of petroleum products amid a level of consumption that does not reflect the country’s economic development,” he said, according to Ahram Online. He noted that last week’s 50% hike in fuel prices still leaves the government subsidizing 25% of the cost of fuel. El Molla then reiterated that fuel subsidies would be eliminated completely by next year, according to Al Shorouk.