Cairo – Mubasher: The new tariff for electricity prices will be applied starting 1 July 2017 and collected in August’s bills, Egypt’s prime minister Sherif Ismail said Thursday.
The government raised the prices of gasoline and natural gas, Ismail added, noting that fuel’s subsidy reached EGP 110 billion in the fiscal year 2016/2017.
The decision to delay the increase in fuel prices will raise the cost of subsidies to EGP 150 billion in 2018, which will negatively impact health and education.
The subsidy does not reach the people who deserve it, so this action is a part of Egypt's economic reform plan aiming to control the budget deficit, Egypt’s PM indicated.
The prices for 92 octane gasoline surged to EGP 5 per litre from EGP 3.50, while diesel prices increased to EGP 3.65 per litre from EGP 2.35, and butane gas prices doubled reaching EGP 30 per cylinder instead of EGP 15.
In May, petroleum minister Tarek El Molla said that the cost of subsidising petroleum products surged 90.2% in the nine months ended March 2017, on an annual basis as a result of floating the pound against the US dollar.
