Cairo – Mubasher: Egypt’s minister of finance Amr El-Garhy on Monday said that the value of electricity subsidies during the fiscal year 2016/2017 grew to EGP 34 billion.
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) is ready to collaborate with the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy to restructure the financing burdens of electricity companies in coordination with banks, El-Garhy added in a statement.
Through its deal with the banks, the ministry aims to extend the period of repaying the electricity sector’s loans, the minister said.
The draft budget for FY17/18, which was submitted to the Egyptian Parliament, showed that the electricity subsidy amounts to around EGP 30 billion compared to EGP 35.071 billion in the current fiscal year’s budget.
Egypt’s Cabinet proposed increasing the electricity subsidy to EGP 80 billion during FY17/18, from the EGP 30 billion that has already been presented to parliament.
Earlier this month, minister of electricity Mohamed Shaker said that the government had not yet decided whether it will apply the electricity price hike in July, or not.
He added that talks to extend the plan to lift subsidies for another two or three years was still underway.
Egypt aims to reduce the budget deficit in FY17/18 to 9% of gross domestic product (GDP), against expectations of 10.5% - 10.8% in the current fiscal year.
