The legislative initiative relating to the importation of vehicles at the original rate plunged Parliament into unusual agitation on Saturday November 29, 2025, giving rise to a real pandemonium under the dome, but was finally adopted.
A hemicycle in turmoil
As soon as the debates opened, the discussions became heated: the deputies, passing the responsibility to each other, suggested that some among them were defending, even if implicitly, the interests of car dealers. The accused vigorously defended themselves, refuting any allegiance to lobbies and denouncing unfounded insinuations.
The atmosphere in Parliament, saturated with tension, reached its climax when Finance Minister Michket Slama Khaldi intervened to express her department’s firm opposition to this initiative.
The Presidency of Parliament finally decided to adjourn the session and grant a break, in order to allow a return to calm and to resume work in more serene conditions.
When work resumed, once minds had calmed and the debates had refocused on the substance of the issue, the Assembly finally proceeded to the vote. Against all expectations, and despite the reservations expressed by the executive, the proposal was overwhelmingly adopted: 131 votes were in favor of the text, against 2 opposed votes and only 1 abstention.
A massive vote despite opposition from the executive
This initiative proposes, it should be remembered, an exceptional exemption regime intended for Tunisians residing in the country, offering them the unique possibility of importing a vehicle at the original price or purchasing one on the local market under the same advantageous conditions.
It strictly regulates the characteristics of eligible vehicles: a maximum age of ten years and a fiscal power not exceeding seven horsepower, and targets citizens over thirty years of age and households meeting specific socio-economic criteria, including an income ceiling set at eighteen times the minimum wage for couples.
The above-mentioned advantages have aroused keen interest among public opinion as well as among elected officials keen to introduce mechanisms capable of supporting purchasing power and responding to a growing social demand for mobility.
However, this enthusiasm and the expectations raised did not fail to come up against the regulatory and financial constraints mentioned by the executive, raising questions about the real feasibility of such a measure.
The severe reservations of the Minister of Finance
Speaking, the Minister of Finance first recalled that the current legal framework in no way allows Tunisian individuals to import a vehicle, the matter being strictly governed by an arsenal of texts, first and foremost foreign exchange legislation.
In this regard, she underlined the imperative need to preserve national foreign currency reserves, an issue considered strategic in a context of increased economic vulnerability.
If she recognized that “ the intention of the text is, in its essence, perfectly laudable », She nevertheless insisted on the limits of its implementation. “ It’s a great proposition… but at what price? », she launched, raising fundamental questions: the import mechanisms, the financing modalities, the impact on the balance of payments, as well as the real capacity of the State to undertake such an operation.
« How will we mobilize the necessary foreign exchange, and how will we provide it? “, she asked herself, before asserting that, in her role as head of public finances, she favored the use of foreign currency reserves for vital imports – energy, cereals, subsidized products – rather than for the acquisition of vehicles.
The minister also warned of the consequences of the massive importation of old vehicles, both from the point of view of maintenance for buyers and the environmental impact, highlighting the risk of adding to an already aging vehicle fleet.
She concluded bluntly: the proposal, as it stood, was not “ applicable ».
NJ
