Parliament finally Ok’s 15% increase of pensions

CAIRO - 4 June 2018: Egypt’s House of Representatives has finally approved on Monday a draft law to raise pensions by 15 percent starting July and to amend the social insurance law promulgated by Law No. 79, 1975.


Article 2 reads that the minimum pension for the insured or eligible pension, in accordance with Law No. 79, 1975, shall be increased from LE 500 to LE 750, including all the increases and subsidies.


According to the draft law, the maximum pension shall be 80 percent of the settlement fee, which is the last remuneration of the speaker of the House of Representatives, prime minister and his deputies, ministries and their deputies, and governors, or their last annual salary, and should not exceed the net maximum wage on the date of termination of office.


The cost of increasing pensions by 15 percent is LE 21.3 billion ($1.1 billion); the amount allocated to pensions in the new fiscal year’s budget is LE 150 billion, Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Wali stated on June 19, 2017.


In the same session, the Parliament also approved a government-drafted bill to increase the military pensions by 15 percent starting July 2018.


The decisions of the 15 percent increase have been made to allow citizens to cope with the high commodity prices since the state’s currency has been floated on November 3, 2016.


According to the recent report issued by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), inflation rates rose from 20.7 percent in November 2016 to 30.5 percent in May 2017.