Al-Masry Al-Youm has learnt that the ministerial committee for the development of subsidized bread production has received a formal report indicating that it is unlikely that the cash bread subsidy (in case changing bread subsidy from a subsidy in kind to a cash subsidy) would be limited to those who have ration cards. An informed source said that the report, which was prepared by a number of experts, said the bread subsidy policy is meant to deliver the subsidy to all segments of society, with a focus on the areas most in need, as it is not like other subsidized commodities that are limited to the most needy. The source pointed out that the report revealed the difficulty of the cash subsidy reaching certain segments, such as day laborers, marginalized groups, unregistered people and other groups that are non-existent in the official books, noting that the report called for the need to search for ways to deliver the cash subsidy to these groups before approving the resolution to change it from a subsidy in kind to a cash subsidy. The source pointed out that all the studies conducted by the Ministerial Committee stressed that the policy of changing subsidies will help stop the import of wheat from abroad, and limit import to certain types of baked items.
He said the Committee's research confirmed that cash subsidies would provide alternatives to the consumer in accordance with his needs and culture, noting that some groups will buy the wheat from the market and store it and produce their needs of domestic bread on a daily basis. The ministerial committee is discussing changing the subsidies in kind to cash subsidies through several main axes; the first of which is to implement the policy of flour trade liberalization, whereby the mills would receive the flour at its liberal price instead of the subsidized price in order to link the production of flour to the free market system and eliminate the black market, so as to reduce the leakage of the wheat and the flour throughout its different dealing stages. The second axis includes the expansion in the bread production units, which the State has already started implementing the first phase of by planning for the establishment of 22 automatic production bread units that operate all stages of production to produce about 22 million loafs daily. The third axis involves the separation of production from distribution. This system has already been applied to many provinces, whereby the value of the bread subsidies are calculated and disbursed in the form of cash to the ration card holders, which are some 62 million citizens. However, the government report confirmed the existence of marginalized groups and day laborers in society that have no ration cards. The bread subsidy is about 17 billion pounds, of which 20-30% is wasted - according to various studies - by using the bread as animal feed or not using it at all or leaking it to the black market.
