(AFP Photo)
The government spent EGP 44.7bn on petroleum subsidies during the first half (1H) of the fiscal year (FY) 2014/2015, the Ministry of Finance announced Monday.
The ministry announced that it will provide urgent liquidity, amounting to EGP 600m, to seven ministries. These ministries include the Ministry of Petroleum, Ministry of International Cooperation, the Ministry of Supply and the Ministry of Agriculture.
The ministry added that EGP 108.5m will be used to supply more than 51,000 Egyptian households with natural gas. The ministry highlighted that natural gas was installed in over 352,000 households, with a total value of EGP 761.1m, since the beginning of the fiscal year.
Around EGP 96.7m will be given to the Ministry of International Cooperation to pay its membership fee in international organisations. A further 120m will be provided to the Ministry of Supply to support the new bread subsidies system.
Since July 2014, the Ministry of Finance has provided the General Authority for Supply Commodities with EGP 21.6bn.
In an unprecedented public announcement by the government that outlined the state budget proposal, the Ministry of Finance held a conference last Thursday to discuss its vision for the upcoming years.
The ministry stated that the targeted spending on health in the fiscal year (FY) 2016/2017 budget is around 3% of the Gross Domestic Profit (GDP), while the government aims to spend 6% of the GDP on education. The proposed budget also seeks to decrease the unemployment rate by 1% to reach 11.9%, and to slide to 10% by FY 2018/2019.
