(DNE Photo)
By Rana Yehia
Minister of Finance Hany Kadry Dimian has approved immediate allocations of EGP 4.5bn to the Ministries of Petroleum, Health, Electricity, Irrigation, Supply, Investment and Education. The governorates of North Sinai and Port Said also have a share in the monetary allocations, according to a Ministry of Finance statement Monday.
The allocations were decided as part of government efforts to improve public services and support the performance of the ministries and public authorities.
The allocations include EGP 1.885bn to the Ministry of Electricity, increasing the total amount of allocations pumped to this ministry from the beginning of the year to reach EGP 20.912bn. This includes EGP 18.4bn worth of petroleum products imported to electricity companies, and EGP 2.5bn for importing gas shipments to power plants, the head of the General Budget sector, Mohamed Abdel Fattah, announced.
The allocations also include: EGP 1.659bn for the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), for supporting the commodities of ration cards; EGP 500m to the new bread subsidy system; EGP 159m in the form of guarantees to import wheat; and EGP 350bn allocated to the Sugar and Integrated Industries Company (SIIC), Abdel Fattah added.
The minister also approved the allocation of EGP 82.5m distributed to the companies affiliated to the Holding Company for Drinking Water and Sanitation across Egypt, to improve the company’s services. A further EGP 36m was also provided to the public authority of sanitation projects, Abdel Fattah noted.
He also signalled the ministerial approval on allocating EGP 88.5m to the Restructuring Fund covering the salaries of textiles companies’ workers. This comes alongside EGP 35m to the Cairo Cleaning and Beautification Agency, EGP 1.8m to cleaning companies in North Sinai and Port Said, EGP 10m to specialised medical centres affiliated to the Ministry of Health and EGP 83.3m to the National Organization of Military Production.
Dimian had previously approved increasing the allocations of the Supreme Press Council and Journalists Syndicate to reach EGP 135.8m during the period of July 2014 until the end of last March.
