The government has reduced the gas subsidies in next year's budget by 78%. Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry has ruled out raising the prices of electricity and water before this year's targeted growth rates are achieved. A senior official with the Finance Ministry said the gas subsidies fell from LE 6.5 billion to LE 1.5 billion next year. He said the government will expand its network to deliver the gas to the homes, as instructed by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, with a view to reducing the consumption of subsidized petroleum products, especially diesel and gasoline. The residential and commercial units that have been supplied with natural gas so far reached 2.2 million of 6 million units targeted by the electoral program of President Mubarak until 2011, said the Ministry of Petroleum. The official added that the gas given to the industrial sector is no longer subsidized after the decisions taken to this effect in May 2008, making its selling price a little more than the cost price declared by the Ministry of Petroleum. He denied any tendency to cancel the subsidies for electricity and water, pointing out that the subsidy for electricity alone in 2008-2009 amounted to some LE 3 billion.
