The Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) approved amending certain terms in the contract between the company and manufacturers, regarding supplying natural gas to factories, which paves the way to more benefits and incentives to the industrial sector and increases industrial growth, said Tarek Kabil, Trade and Industry Minister, according to Al Ahram Newspaper.

EGAS approved amending the value of insurance deposit to be for 30 days, instead of 60 days, for all industrial consumers over and less than 20,000 cubic meters, at current exchange rates, with the possibility of installing the payment on the basis of a 25% advance payment and installing the remaining value over 24 months instead of the 18 months applied currently. However, payments must be in cash and not letters of guarantee.

In addition, EGAS approved removing a 2.5% surcharge on manufacturers’ overdue bills, which will decrease the fines industrial parties across the different consumption brackets have to pay for using more than the annual amount of natural gas stated in the contract.