Egyptian parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Aal told MPs in a plenary session on Monday morning that parliament will adjourn its second legislative season on Wednesday, amid discussion over the recent cut in fuel subsidies and the price hike in commodities. "[Parliament will adjourn] after we vote on the 2007/08 state budget and the socio-economic development plan," said Abdel-Aal, adding that "parliament will also vote on two laws aimed at creating a national electoral commission and regulating organ transplant operations." MPs approved on Monday a measure that would task the president of the republic with signing off on the adjourning of parliament's second-term session. "This goes in line with Article 274 of parliament's internal bylaws, which also state that the president must ask parliament to hold its new annual legislative season before the first Thursday of every October," said Abdel-Aal. The speaker said that Wednesday's session will be devoted to reviewing a report on parliament's legislative and supervisory achievements over nine months – from October 2016 to July 2017. Abdel-Aal also said that Prime Minister Sherif Ismail will address MPs on Wednesday and answer their questions on economic policies. MPs affiliated with the majority bloc Support Egypt said that before parliament takes its annual summer recess next week, they want to make sure that the government will do everything possible to cushion poor and limited income citizens against any possible increases in inflation and prices in the summer. The head of the bloc Mohamed El-Sewedi said that the government must ensure that merchants do not use the recent rise in fuel costs to increase the price of food and commodities. "Poor and limited-income brackets will suffer very much if food prices go up again this summer, and the government should have a strategy to deal with this situation and exercise tight control on food markets or face social unrest," said El-Sewedi. El-Sewedi also said that the government should help farmers and workers deal with private sector monopolies. "The government should raise crop delivery prices in order help farmers meet their increasing living needs, not leave them prey to private merchants, and avoid a rise in food prices in the market," said El-Sewedi, "As MPs approved raising fuel prices, they will also do their best to make sure that the income of farmers and workers is boosted to help tackle hard living conditions." Abdel-Aal said that MPs should form "supervisory committees" in their governorates that would be responsible for monitoring food prices and standing up to greedy merchants and retailers. "This is your duty and you must extend a helping hand to poor citizens as much as possible," said Abdel-Aal. MPs also insisted that the Ministry of Electricity must not cut subsidised electricity prices in August. "It would be too much for poor and limited-income citizens to suffer a new hike in electricity prices, as this would come only one month after the hike in fuel prices," said independent MP Mostafa Bakri. Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker told the Industrial Committee on Monday that the government is very keen on ensuring that poor and average-income classes remain immune to any hike in electricity prices. "We are very keen on showing as much mercy as possible towards these vulnerable classes," said Shaker, adding that "a new cut in electricity subsidies is expected in August and that wealthy classes with high power consumption rates will be the ones who will pay more." Shaker dismissed reports that a new hike in electricity prices will come upon the demand of the International Monetary Fund. "This is a government strategy rather than an IMF demand, and it aims to reduce the budget deficit because the electricity sector is still plagued with huge subsidies," said Shaker, adding that "while a citizen pays one pound for electricity, the government pays six pounds." Shaker said that industrial projects will mostly foot the bill of subsidy cuts. "Household consumption of electricity will still receive huge subsidies that reach EGP 47.3 billion per year," said Shaker.
