Electricity min.: Electricity output quadrupled since 2014

CAIRO, Jan 27 (MENA) - Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker said the electricity production has been quadrupled since 2014 to ditch power outage problems and improve services offered to citizens.

During a meeting of the parliamentary committee for Arab affairs on Sunday, Shaker said in 2014 the country's power production capacity stood at 9,800 megawatts but now it has reached roughly 38,500 megawatts.

The Minister also said that the implementation of plans for lifting the Finance Ministry's subsidy to the Electricity Ministry has been delayed five years.

He noted that the ministry asked the Finance Ministry to pump LE37 billion into its budget in the 2018-2019 fiscal year, but the Finance Ministry approved injecting only LE16 billion.

Despite the shortage in the budget, the Electricity Ministry will continue to offer 60 to 65 percent subsidy to people for electricity services, he said.

He pointed out that February will mark the end of the first stage of upping the capacity of power stations linked to Sudan from 100 megawatts to 300 megawatts.

He noted that lawmakers call for upping these stations' capacity to 700 megawatts, but this would cost Egypt LE4.5 billion and Sudan LE4 billion.

Thanks to Egypt's distinguished geographic location, it will be a power linkage center through connecting its electricity grid with Africa, Europe and Asia, he said.