MPs Oppose The Government Decision To Exclude Diesel-Powered Used Cars From The Import Licence

The legislative chamber does not share the government’s position on the issue of importing used cars, and the majority of MPs believe that the draft finance law for 2020 neglects some negative points, which should be reviewed, parliamentary sources said.

Algerian government included some controls, in the draft finance law, that did not satisfy many Algerians, including the ban on the import of diesel-powered cars, which caused a setback for most Algerians, many of whom hoped to import cars which use this type of fuel.

The government has already used the system of importing used cars for less than three years, until 2005, the date on which the government of Ahmed Ouyahia, who is in Algiers Harrach prison, relented to the import lobbies of cars, and abolished the system, which served only these lobbies, which drained billions of dollars from the pockets of Algerians whose dreams were buying cars, before everyone woke up to a nightmare and it was revealed that it was a “Mafia” alliance between successive governments of the former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, with financial lobbies that were brought up in the so-called “gang” system.

According to Echorouk sources, the Senator Abdelwahab Benzaim, the MPs decided to address the project as stated by the government in its item on the importation of used cars less than three years old, and they are preparing to amend the relevant article by inserting an item that drops the exception related to Prevent the import of diesel-powered cars.

According to parliamentary measures, the amendment is made at the level of the lower chamber of parliament, where the majority of MPs have refused to exclude diesel-powered cars from the license to import used cars before the National Assembly approves the amendment.

The justification that was given by the government to prevent the importation of diesel-powered cars, by the Minister of Environment and Renewable Energies, Fatma Zohra Zerouati, is the fear that Algeria will become a dustbin for foreign cars with a diesel engine.

She also justified the decision with what she called “the commitments of the National Climate Plan, which obliges all sectors to switch to liquefied gas and electric vehicles.”

However, the Minister Zerouati does not know or ignores the fact that the cars which are covered by the law under study are in line with the European pollution control standards, which set acceptable limits on the emissions of new cars that are sold in the EU Member States, space from which Algerians normally import the used cars.

It is known that the European Union countries have been working since 2015 on the Euro 6 standard for emissions, a system in which pollutant emissions are reduced to lower levels, as evidence that they are still in force in the EU, which undermines the justifications of the Environment Minister Zerouati who seems to be neither successful nor working in line with the aspirations of millions of people who want to own a diesel-powered car with European standards.