A number of amendments to the state budget for the next financial year 2018/2019 were suggested by the budget and planning committee in discussions in Egypt's House of Representatives which started on Sunday, Al-Ahram Arabic website reported. The committee's report demanded that the new budget include legislative changes to facilitate an increase in state revenue without affecting low-income citizens, according to MP Hussein Eissa, head of the committee. A new package of social protection for poor and low-income citizens was also recommended. The committee recommended the imposition of fees to legalise currently unauthorised and illegal land ownership and use, for example 10,000 Egyptian pounds for each agricultural fedanne used for housing. The budget and planning committee also emphasised the importance of restricting the size of state bureaucracy, considering the increase of the state wage bill to 266 billion pounds in the financial year 2018/2019 budgeting. "There are seven million governmental employees yet state administration requires only three million, meaning there is an excess of four million employees," Hussein Eissa said to parliament. Eissa added that the government should adopt a training programme to shape these four million employees into a productive force. The House of Representatives also discussed the budgets of the general economic authorities and the National Authority for Military Production in the new financial year. The parliamentary report recommended that the government search for new ways to reduce the budget deficit as well the percentage of public debt. The committee proposed amendments in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance to increase the budget for the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health. Source: Ahram Online
