Ad hoc committee keeps Octane 95 price at LE7.75 in Q2 2019

CAIRO – 1 April 2019: The ad hoc committee to follow up the mechanism of automatic pricing of octane gasoline (95) decided not to move the price of selling the 95 gasoline product in the local market, including the sales tax rate.

The committee decided to keep the price at LE 7.75 per liter during the second quarter of 2019.

This decision came after the committee reviewed the actual developments of the basic elements affecting the cost of making available and selling gasoline (95), which includes the development of the price of the pound against the dollar in light of the official data of the Central Bank of Egypt for the first quarter of 2019, and the evolution of world prices of Brent crude oil during the same period.

In January 2019, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek al-Molla said that automatic fuel pricing will start in April to be applicable on Octane 95 only.

The minister said that the price is expected to either remain the same or change by 10 percent up or down.

In June, Octane 95 prices went up from LE 6.6 ($ 0.37) per liter to LE 7.7, while 92 octane gasoline prices amounted to LE 6.75 instead of LE 5 per liter. Prices of Octane 80's liter increased to LE 5.5 from LE 3.65.

The price of diesel became LE 5.5 a liter instead of LE 3.65, while the price of natural gas used for vehicles rose to LE 2.75 per cubic meter from LE 2.

The price of the cooking gas cylinder rose to LE 50 instead of LE 30 and the commercial gas cylinder's prices surged to LE 100 from LE 60.

Egypt embarked on a bold economic reform program that included the introduction of taxes, such as the value-added tax (VAT), and cutting energy subsidies, with the aim of trimming the budget deficit.

The country has floated its currency in November 2016 before it clinched a $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The IMF loan helped the state’s foreign reserves to rebound by receiving the first three tranches of the loan with a total value of $6.08 billion.