FILE - Ministry of Finance
CAIRO - 10 June 2019: The Finance Ministry denied Sunday reports on fuel prices hike, saying that a fabricated Facebook page with the logo of the ministry had claimed such rumors, according to a statement issued by the ministry's official Facebook page.
The ministry stressed that the rumors are baseless and aim at misleading the citizens and stirring up public opinion.
The statement reported that the ministry was tracking the creator of this page to be brought to justice.Also, the ministry urged citizens to seek accuracy while reporting on their official pages on social media networks.
Earlier in May, Petroleum Minister Tarek al-Molla announced that Egypt spent LE 60.1 billion ($3.51 bln) on fuel subsidies in the first nine months of the 2018-2019 financial year,a drop of 28.45 percent from the same period in the previous year.
The minister added that Egypt has been reducing fuel subsidies as part of an IMF-backed reform program that began in 2016, and is due to remove subsidies on most energy products by June.
In the same context, the government denied rumors of increasing electricity prices by 30-60 percent in July, adding that such circulated percentage was false.
After the news determining the rise in electricity prices spread on social media, the media center at the Cabinet fact-checked the information with the Ministry of Electricity, which in return denied it.
The ministry has announced that there will be another increase in electricity prices as part of the government's plan to slash the subsidies off fuel and power. The ministry said that once the new increase is officially determined, it will be announced in a press conference with all relevant details.
According to the 2019-20 preliminary budget, spending on electricity subsidies will fall 37.5 percent to LE 10 billion and spending on petroleum products will be cut by 42 percent.
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