Latest social measures to cost LE75B: Minister

CAIRO – 21 June 2017: The latest economic decisions taken by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi will cost the government a total of LE 75 billion ($4.1 billion), to be included in fiscal year 2017/2018 state budget, Minister of Finance Amr El-Garhy said Wednesday.

Recent allocations for the social safety network pushed the FY2017/2018 budget to LE 1.2 trillion ($4.1 billion), Garhy noted in a statement from his ministry.

Under the new decisions, an individual's share from a ration card would be increased from LE 21 to LE 50, increasing allocations of food subsidies in the budget to LE 85 billion from LE 47 billion in FY2016/2017.

A 15 percent hike in the value of pensions for elderly citizens will cost the budget another LE 23-24 billion, according to Garhy, elevating the contribution of the pensions and social insurance in the budget to LE 190 billion, “an unprecedented figure in the history of Egyptian budgets,” he said.

Allocations for the Ministry of Social Solidarity’s program for the poor, “Takaful and Karama’s,” will increase LE 2 billion to meet a LE 100 surge in the share of each beneficiary, making the total value borne by the government for the program LE 8.36 billion.

Starting in July, employees in the public sector will be paid an extra bonus which will cost the state LE 13-14 billion.

Garhy said his ministry will work to keep expected budget deficit at 9.1 percent of GDP, “despite all these burdens.”