17 consumer complexes to be developed in Upper Egypt

CAIRO - 8 August 2019: Seventeen consumer complexes in Upper Egypt will be developed in FY2019-2020, Spokesperson of the Egyptian Company for Wholesale Mohamed Atef told Egypt Today.

Consumer complexes are supermarkets owned by public companies to sell subsidized goods to citizens. Fifty-seven out of 153 consumer complexes owned by the company have been already developed.

The Egyptian Company for Wholesale is a subsidiary of Food Industries Holding Company SAE affiliated to the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade.

In July, the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade announced it will finish the modernization of the offices offering services to ration card holders in two years.

Those offices are being equipped with computers, photocopiers, scanners, fax machines, AC, waiting halls, and queue number machines. The offices will provide services to the in-kind subsidies recipients only, as they used to serve the retailers offering the subsidized goods as well.

The Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade started in March preparing a list of citizens to be discarded from the database of in-kind subsidies recipients, as those would be gradually excluded starting April.

That is the second phase of an initiative that targets to limit granting in-kind subsidies to citizens who are really in need.

Each of the following elements incurs elimination from the database

Consumption of more than 650 kilowatts per month.

The mobile phone monthly bill exceeds LE 800.

Payment of more than LE 30,000 per academic year for every child.

Ownership of a fancy car or a car of a model not older than 2014.

High-ranking position at work.

Egyptian citizens who work abroad.

Prisoners who are serving a final sentence that can no longer be appealed and who are no longer eligible for retrial.