A survey conducted by Egypt's Baseera polling centre revealed that 77 percent of households that fall within the country's highest economic bracket make use of ration cards. The independent Baseera centre says that half of these households said that they would be willing to give up their cards for households more in need. The total number of those willing to give up their cards stands at 5.5 million households, according to the centre. According to the centre, eight out of every 10 Egyptian households use government-issued subsidy cards, with Lower Egyptian governorates showing the highest use of ration cards at 89 percent, followed by the southern governorates at 80 percent, while urban governorates coming in last at 69 percent. In October, Egypt's supply minister Mohamed Ali El-Sheikh said that 71 million people use subsidy cards to buy essential foodstuffs. Baseera says that if these citizens forego the use of their cards, this would save nearly a third of the budget allocated to subsidising goods, which stood at EGP 41 billion in the 2016/2017 budget. In October, the state-run Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) revealed that 10.5 percent of subsidies are received by families in the poorest bracket; while subsidies decrease gradually to 4.2 percent for the richest bracket. Egypt is currently working to provide essential food goods and regulate the market amid price hikes and a shortage of essential commodities.
