By Islam Atirss
The government is currently considering plans to convert Egypt’s Public Transportation Authority (PTA) into a holding company in order to increase its revenues.
“Restructuring the authority was necessary in order to make up for the difference between its revenues and expenses,” said the head of PTA, Mona Mostafa.
She added that the government’s plan to create a holding company is one of many measures being taken to address the PTAs current funding gap.
Sources close to the authority said that five smaller companies would be created to operate under the umbrella of the holding company. However, these companies would operate independently and would be responsible for purchasing, with their own budget, what they need in the way of trucks and equipment.
Various garages owned and operated by the authority in Greater Cairo would be utilised and divided amongst the different companies.
Converting the PTA into a holding company was one of a series of demands brought up during recent labour strikes. Low wages, destruction of the PTA’s assets, in addition to its failure to consistently renew and update its fleet of trucks, were all factors leading workers to call for privatisation.
Sources added that the implementation of these plans would begin after the creation of the Transport Regulatory Authority for Greater Cairo, which would operate in the same fashion of the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority in that it would monitor the recently converted holding companies, adjust their tariffs and make sure that they abide by all rules and regulations.
The PTA’s budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year stated that the authority suffered from a EGP 455.6m deficit, while revenues that year totalled EGP 1.215bn, EGP 860.8m of which was provided by the state’s treasury.
The PTA’s expenses totalled EGP 1.7bn, EGP 842.2m of which went towards wages, with EGP 829.3m being allotted for other expenses, such as the purchase of raw materials, energy and spare parts, linking the authority’s budget from the previous year to EGP 2.8bn.
